Ma Ho-fai

Opinion | To tap Hong Kong’s village land in the New Territories for housing, mindsets must change

The sale of tso and tong land has been hampered by an incorrect interpretation of the law governing it: unanimous consent from all clan members is not necessary

In case of objections, district officers tasked with approving the land sale are duty bound to consider if it is valid, instead of simply refusing consent

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Indigenous village houses in Yuen Long are seen in an aerial photo in April 2019. Photo: Winson Wong

Ma Ho-fai

Published: 8:45am, 18 Apr 2021Updated: 8:45am, 18 Apr 2021

For a city to thrive and prosper, few issues are as important as housing. Hong Kong has been haunted by a housing crisis for years, with a growing queue for public housing. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in tiny subdivided units, and property prices are soaring to a level that is unaffordable except to a small percentage of the population. The only solution to the crisis is to increase land supply.

Lantau Tomorrow Vision is a laudable idea. Yet it will take years before we see the first group of people moving in. Hong Kong needs immediate solutions.

Meanwhile, large pieces of land in the New Territories are sitting idle and grossly underutilised, including tso/tong land, held in the name of a clan, family or tong.

According to a book published by the Heung Yee Kuk, there is around 2,400 hectares of such tso/tong land scattered across the New Territories, and much of it sits in the middle of large sites that could be developed. If developed together with adjacent land, this would be a great boost to housing supply in the short to medium term.

Many clan members are eager to sell their tso/tong land, but the intended sale often fails to materialise. Under the New Territories Ordinance, each tso or tong is required to appoint a “manager”, and the manager must obtain the consent of the relevant district officer for a sale to go ahead.

For many years, district officers would only approve a sale when there was unanimous consent from all clan members. Even where there was a single objection, they would choose not to process the application. Their inaction is as much a result of an incorrect interpretation of the law as the bureaucratic mindset of officials.