12 land auctions will provide 9,100 homes

Twelve residential sites together worth an estimated HK$42 billion are included in next fiscal year's land sale program, providing more than 9,100 homes in total, the highest in five years, the Development Bureau said.

Among them, six plots are rolled over from this year's program including one in Stanley whose tender was withdrawn earlier.

And part of a 50,000-square-meter site in Yau Kom Tau in Tsuen Wan to offer nearly 2,000 flats will be used for the "Starter Homes" Pilot Scheme while a Tung Chung site with 500 homes will see about 10 percent of its gross floor area set aside for the Youth Hostel Scheme, the Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho said in a news conference yesterday.

The Tsuen Wan site and a piece of land at the junction of Sai Ning Street and Victoria Road in Kennedy Town will be up for tender next quarter, supplying around 2,400 flats.

Together with projects of the MTR Corp (0066) and the Urban Renewal Authority, as well as other private redevelopments, the potential home supply for the year starting April would reach 20,550 units, Linn pointed out.

Three commercial sites, one at the Queensway Plaza in Admiralty, a Kai Tak site that failed to sell in 2019, and the former Chai Wan Police Married Quarters, totaling 201,730 sq m, will also be launched next year.

Linn said she's not worried about the tender of a site on Mong Kok's Sai Yee Street which closes today even after sales of several sites collapsed recently amid weak market sentiment.

She stressed that the government cannot simply look at the current land disposal situation alone to determine the future land sale program because construction will take a few years to complete and some opportunities may be lost if it only sells sites when the market performs well.

The program also offers three industrial sites in Yuen Long with a total floor area of 170,000 sq m for high value-added industries, including logistics and vehicle maintenance, Linn added.

Separately, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said yesterday that the government does not plan to change the "spicy measures" for properties because the home prices are still stable despite falling 15 percent last year and did not pose any risks to the financial market.

Chan said foreclosure is not common at the moment but the authorities will keep an eye on the situation.