64 hectares off Sai Sha road identified as suitable for housing for 100,000

Housing for 100,000 people should be built near Sai Sha Road, according to the Our Hong Kong Foundation. In its new report on the land for housing shortage, the foundation said the Government had missed 64 hectares at Shap Sze Heung that were suitable for development. It was government land outside the country park, that was not too steep and had access to transport. There was sufficient room for 30,000 flats. Sun Hung Kai Properties is also expected to build hundreds of flats on its large plot below the Shap Sze Heung hills.

The report was written by Stephen Wong Yuen-shan, head of the foundation’s Public Policy Institute, and Richard Wong Kennedy Wong, a professor at the University of Hong Kong. The foundation was set up by former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.
Quality of life will continue to decline in Hong Kong, because the size of flats will carry on shrinking, the pair of Wongs wrote. Nano-flats under 215 sq ft will continue to be built by developers.
Hong Kong’s housing shortage can only be solved by land reclamation, the academics said. The Government has developed plans to fill in the sea at offshore Tseung Kwan O to create a new island for housing. Next week the Government will launch public consultation on its plans to develop 1200 hectares.
The territory’s notoriety as the world’s worst place for housing because prices are beyond the reach of ordinary people will continue.