The Secretary for Planning and Lands, Mr John C. Tsang, announced today (March 4) the Land Sale Programme for 2002/03 and the Land Development Programme for 2003/2004 to 2006/2007.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr Tsang said, "Our land policy is to provide sufficient land to meet market demand and facilitate infrastructural developments. The one-year Land Sale Programme sets out details of the sites to be sold by scheduled auctions and tenders and provides an Application List specifying the sites available for application.
"The Application List system gives flexibility to land sale by letting the market determine the timing, amount and type of additional land required. Our land sale arrangement is highly transparent and provides the market with certainty on land supply, which helps maintain stability in the property market," he said.
"The property sector is generally in support of the existing land sale arrangement. In view of this, we will continue the current approach of selling the smaller private housing sites by regular auction and putting the larger sites in the Application List.
"There will be a good mix of sites available in the next financial year in terms of type, site area and location. We believe these sites will be able to meet market demand," he said.
Under the new Land Sale Programme, 10 private residential sites totalling about five hectares will be put up for sale in five scheduled land auctions between April 2002 and February 2003.
Besides scheduled land auctions, the Application List for the next financial year will provide about 26 hectares of private housing land for application, compared to about 20 hectares available for application in the current financial year.
"The increase is mainly due to the inclusion of some private residential sites converted from the Private Sector Participation Scheme," Mr Tsang explained.
"Under the new Land Development Programme, we estimate that about 369 hectares of land will likely be made available through land auction, tender and private treaty grant in the four-year period between 2003/04 and 2006/07.
"Government will keep the four-year estimated land supply under regular review and determine the future quantity of land supply to meet the long-term needs of our community," Mr Tsang said.
The Government expects to complete a number of new land grants in the next financial year. If all of these new land grants can be completed, they will provide about 24 hectares of land for railway residential projects and about 82 hectares for non-housing uses mainly for railway-related facilities, community facilities such as schools etc.
Whether these land grants will be completed in the new financial year will depend on the progress of individual projects.
A breakdown of the sites in the Land Sale Programme for 2002/03 is as follows:
Scheduled auctions and tenders in 2002/2003-------------------------------------------Use No. of sites Area (hectare)----- ------------ -----------1. Residential 4 1.55(high density)2. Residential 5 3.63(low density)3. Residential/ 1 0.07Commercial4. Petrol station 10 1.54-------------- -----------Total 20 6.79Sites available for application in 2002/2003--------------------------------------------Use No. of sites Area (hectare)--- ----------- --------------1. Residential 16 20.93(high density)2. Residential 2 1.71(low density)3. Residential/ 3 3.78Commercial4. Commercial 3 4.615. Business 1 0.726. Industrial/ 3 1.04Industrial-Office/Godown 7. Workshop 1 0.58--------- -----------Total 29 33.37
Full details of the Land Sale Programme for 2002/03 can be viewed and downloaded at the Lands Department's web site https://www.landsd.gov.hk
End/Monday, March 4, 2002
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