Former Hong Kong development chief Paul Chan hands over long waits and land rows

Boosting land supply has been the main buzz phrase Hongkongers have heard since Leung ­Chun-ying’s government took over five years ago. Paul Chan Mo-po, who headed the Development Bureau before replacing John Tsang Chun-wah as financial secretary in January, started the job with much controversy and left with some major targets unmet.

Chan’s suitability for the job was called into question shortly after he got it in 2012, especially after it was revealed his family owned 18,000 sq ft of farmland in Kwu Tung North, which the ­government planned to develop into a new town. And a year later a company controlled by Chan’s wife was revealed to have been running illegally subdivided flats.

Chan, a former legislator for the accountancy sector, did not emerge from the controversies unscathed. The government had long been accused of getting too cosy with developers, who had been buying cheap farmland in the New Territories and waiting for new town development ­opportunities. And the proliferation of subdivided flats had been marked as a symptom of Hong Kong’s housing malaise.

During his four and a half years in charge, his team managed to meet the private housing supply targetof 18,000 a year. But his ­bureau struggled to find land for public housing. The government had targeted 280,000 public flats by 2025-26, but announced a shortfall of 44,000 last year.