Concrete Analysis | Harsh realities of market stymie Leung Chun-ying's housing goals
Despite the best of intentions, the administration has been unable to deliver the results it intended in terms of housing
As we are now two years into Leung Chun-ying's administration, we can take stock of what has been achieved in the city's property market.
Housing was one of the key platforms in the chief executive's election manifesto, particularly the sourcing of more residential land and delivery of more units to the market, not only to assist those who aspire to own but also to increase public rental stock.
Ultimate targets of 20,000 private sector and 25,000 public units were set as firm goals, while Leung also undertook to establish more robust long-term housing needs.
However, it appears that the realities of the real estate world in Hong Kong, the failure of the previous administration to keep pace with the city's housing and development needs, the selfishness of some members of the community and the prescriptive nature of many government processes were underestimated, so that actual implementation has been challenging, to say the least.
In addition, because of the inability to deliver new supply quickly and the unwillingness of many to wait, intervention to calm the market and deter speculation proved necessary, rationalised by a general strategy of Hong Kong homes for Hong Kong people.
So where are we today? We are edging up the target supply chain but with only 9,000 or so units completed last year and an average of 15,000 a year anticipated over the next two years, there is still some way to go to achieve the private sector target of 20,000 a year.