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Hong Kong finance chief calls for ‘do-or-die determination’ in tackling housing issues, wealth gap

  • City must ‘drastically’ increase land supply, simplify ‘tedious’ procedures if it hopes to get rid of subdivided flats in next 20 years, Paul Chan says
  • ‘One country, two systems’ model no excuse for ‘serious gap between the rich and poor in Hong Kong’

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Hong Kong must take drastic steps to solve its housing crisis, finance chief Paul Chan says. Photo: Martin Chan
Natalie Wong
Hong Kong must get rid of subdivided flats in the next two decades by “drastically” increasing land supply and simplifying “tedious” planning procedures, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po.
Writing on his official blog on Sunday, the finance minister said he regarded housing as a “significant political problem”, adding that authorities needed to exhibit “do-or-die determination” and think outside the box to resolve the issues behind the housing crisis, such as a yawning wealth gap.

“‘One country, two systems’ allows Hong Kong to develop with a capitalist economy. But the implementation of ‘two systems’ does not justify the serious gap between the rich and poor in Hong Kong,” he said.

Chan was responding to recent remarks by Xia Baolong, director of the central government’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, who on July 16 called on local officials to do away with cramped subdivided flats and tiny “cage homes” by 2049, the centenary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

A video posted to Chan’s blog showed him visiting subdivided flats in Sham Shui Po, with the financial minister saying: “Hong Kong’s housing problems are a pain point of the working class, but issues arising from subdivided flats can be solved with determination.”

There are an estimated 110,000 subdivided flats in Hong Kong, housing some of the city’s poorest residents.

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Hong Kong financial secretary visits low-income people in Sham Shui Po

Hong Kong financial secretary visits low-income people in Sham Shui Po

Chan, who steers an internal government committee on land supply, said in the blog post that as Hong Kong had transitioned from “from chaos to governable” in recent years, it was time for the authorities to make substantial progress on resolving the housing issues.

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