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Land supply for housing development
I agree with Members that the most effective way of stabilising residential property prices in the long run is to increase the supply of land and accelerate housing production. Our declared aim has always been to make available sufficient land to meet the additional requirements arising from regular reviews of public and private housing demand. We have already announced the target of providing 504,000 new flats in the next six years. In order to establish how much land is required for the different categories of housing after that date and at what time the flats should come on stream, we have started a systematic and comprehensive assessment of the scale and composition of housing demand in both the public and private sectors. This assessment is expected to be completed in a few months' time. The findings will provide the basis for a review of the Long Term Housing Strategy. The review will commence at the end of this year and will make recommendations on the Government's housing policy after the year 2001. Before proceeding with the review, I intend to solicit widely for views from Members of this Council, the Housing Authority, interested organisations, concern groups and the general public. Subject to the Government's final decision on the way ahead, we will then identify and allocate sites to the Housing Authority and the Housing Society to produce more public housing flats to meet confirmed demand. Similarly, sufficient sites will also be made available for private housing, subject to the agreement of the Sino-British Land Commission.
I would add that apart from new land, redevelopment is also a major source of flat supply in the private sector. We have just commissioned a study of the redevelopment potential of the entire territory for housing development, starting with the metropolitan area. This study is expected to be completed around March next year. In addition, five other studies will also be undertaken shortly to explore specifically the housing development potential of another 170 hectares of land in various parts of Hong Kong,
Housing production
Good planning is essential in housing production as it takes a relatively long lead time to produce flats to meet demand. In the next six years we have pledged to provide 310,000 new flats in the public sector and to enable the production of 195,000 flats in the private sector. This is equivalent to an average production of 84,000 flats a year. To achieve these targets, a high-powered Housing Project Action Team, chaired by me personally, has been established to strengthen inter-departmental co-operation, and to monitor. facilitate and accelerate the process of housing development. At present, we are fast-tracking and monitoring 38 large housing projects, with a potential production of about 94.000 flats, to ensure that not only is the land available on time for development, but that the required infrastructure will be completed on schedule or even accelerated to match the population intake.