Hong Kong's newly elected leader acknowledged the ‘acute’ problems facing the local housing market and promised to create 65,000 residential housing units in the next three to four years.
According to a Reuters report, Leung Chun-ying, chief executive and president of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, is facing one of the most tumultuous housing markets in the world. Home prices in Hong Kong has risen 12.3% since the beginning of the year and have climbed 89% since the end of 2008.
Leung, a former property surveyor who assumed office last month, has presented a housing policy strategy that calls for 65,000 private sector units in the next three to four years, along with 75,000 public housing units over the next five years. He has also proposed re-zoning industrial sites for residential housing, which could create an extra 11,900 units.
‘The housing problems are becoming more acute,’ said Leung in a news conference yesterday. ‘The government is aware housing is an issue dear to the heart of everyone.’
However, Leung's new proposals did not include a continuation of his controversial ‘Hong Kong land for Hong Kong people’ plan, which would prevent mainland Chinese buyers from purchasing property in the former British crown colony. Mainland Chinese buyers made up 37% of all new property purchases in Hong Kong during the first quarter of this year.
