In line with the established practice that land will be sold at market value, the Government maintains a well-established system to assess each land sale application from the private sector and to decide whether or not to accept an offered price, the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen said today (Tuesday).
Addressing the 25th Anniversary Dinner of the Hong Kong Branch of Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, Mr Suen said that the system was benchmarked on market prices.
"We will monitor the market situation closely and make sure that the amount of land supply in each year's Application List will be in line with market sentiments," Mr Suen said.
"We will continue to sell land and make available a sufficient number of lots of different grading and size for market to apply for, having regard to the overall situation in keeping a reasonable balance between supply and demand of residential housing," he added.
He note that under the present circumstances, it would be incumbent on the Government to make sure that it was able to make land available to meet market demands.
"While we will make no judgment on the quantum of private housing production at any particular point of time, as this is a matter for the market, we will just make sure that we will not be caught short when demand builds up," Mr Suen said.
"The market and the individual developers will continue to read the market sentiments, to analyse all sorts of relevant statistics in order to come to an educated decision as to the amount of housing stock which will be required to meet market demands at any one point in time," he added.
"This will be a process which will be dictated by market forces and which has a proven track record," he added.
Mr Suen outlined three most basic considerations in the Government's Housing Policy. These considerations are caring for low-income families, minimal market intervention and a stable operating environment.
In terms of caring for low-income families, Mr Suen said that the Government would maintain its principled position of providing basic and decent accommodation to all under-privileged citizens.
"We have pledged to maintain a supply of public rental housing for needy applicants so as to keep the average waiting time of those on the Waiting List to around three years," he said.
Mr Suen noted that the issue of public rental housing had become the talk of the town recently in view of the pending appeal which the Housing Authority has lodged to the Court of Appeal set to be heard in late April.
In this connection, the Authority is obliged to conduct a review of rent level for public housing tenants in order to comply with the original Court Order, arising from the case which is now the subject of the current Appeal.
He said that the Authority had earlier today endorsed a targeted rent reduction in accordance with the terms of the Court Order, under which the rents of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) households would be remitted, together with a 10% rent reduction for other non-CSSA households.
"We believe that this formulation should meet with approval from the wider community, as it would bring about moderate rent remissions to all public housing tenants and would, at the same time, cause the financial damage to both the Housing Authority and public purse to be kept within more manageable levels," he said.
Mr Suen pointed out that recent discussions had also revealed that the current rent level review exercise clearly underscores the case for amending the existing legislative provisions governing rent adjustments.
"To me, the case for new rent adjustment mechanism that is more rational, and which helps promote the long-term sustainability of the public housing programme is so patently obvious.
"We will consult the public on this important issue after the outcome of the appeal case is known," he said.
Ends/Tuesday, March 30, 2004.
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