Think Tank Predicts Sharp Drop In Housing Supply

A pro-Beijing think tank is forecasting that in the next few years, waiting times for public housing will exceed six years and there is going to be a sharp drop in housing supply.

Latest figures have the average waiting time at five and a half years.

The Our Hong Kong Foundation, which was founded by former Chief Executive Tung Chee-wah, said it looked into supply numbers and concluded that both public and private housing will fall off what it called a supply "cliff" in the next few years.

The foundation's head of housing research, Ryan Ip, said private supply will drop by 40 percent in 2023 from last year's figures.

"Obviously that's because we are actually running out of available land. And you see that it is not a coincidence that both private and public housing supply is going to have a cliff in three to four years' time," Ip said.

The think tank said the government should provide a timetable for the development of some 110 hectares of brownfield sites, and rural farmland to the tune of 150 hectares.

It also looked at land that was rezoned for housing development last year, and found that it took an average of four to five years for the rezoning process to be completed.