Here’s how transferable development rights outweigh Lantau reclamation plan in ending Hong Kong housing crisis
Mar 31, 2021
South China Morning Post
Excerpt
Housing in Hong Kong is among the least affordable in the world. And the problem is not lack of land, but lack of development. Three quarters of the city's land is vacant, and much of this is reasonably buildable territory.
In particular, the city contains 1,414 hectares of brownfield sites and another 1,200 hectares of country development land reserved for indigenous villagers of the New Territories that is suitable for high-density residential construction.
Despite this readily available land for housing, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's Lantau Tomorrow Vision is focused on reclaiming 1,000 to 1,700 hectares from the ocean at the huge cost of HK$624 billion.
Why reclaim new land at such high cost when existing land is just sitting there ready for new construction? The problem is the absence of an efficient bargaining process, by which low-value uses can be converted into uses that would be valued more highly.
For decades, developers, indigenous villagers, and the government have been locked in endless dickering over how to divide the gains from converting land, with the result that nothing gets done.
Opposition to new construction also comes from existing property owners, who are fearful that increasing housing supply might lower the value of their investment. The most dramatic expression of such opposition was property owners' protest against former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa's plan to build 85,000 housing units. We suggest that this deadlock could be solved using transferable development rights or TDRs. Under our proposal, the government would give every Hong Kong citizen 50 square feet of TDRs.
More :
https://www.scmp.com/business/articl...clamation-plan
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