Opinion | A profitable, affordable housing alternative to wasteful temporary ‘light housing’ and Lantau Tomorrow

Housing was the only policy issue Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu chose for priority action in his first 100 days. Yet, more than 200 days later, no rational long-term housing proposal has been presented.

A mere 5 per cent of the roughly 240,000 households on the government’s waiting list were allocated public housing in the third quarter of 2022, according to the Housing Authority’s latest figures. The average waiting time for a public rental flat is almost six years.

This brings us to the government’s latest proposal to ease the city’s chronic housing shortage – the creation of 30,000 light public housing units. The price tag for this short-term solution to a political and societal ailment is a staggering HK$26.4 billion (US$3.3 billion). The units’ lifespan is just five years before they are demolished to make way for permanent residential developments.

The light public housing proposal is just the latest wasteful, expensive idea from the government as it tries to address the shortage of affordable housing and offer decent accommodation to families forced to live in subdivided flats or other unacceptable forms of housing.

Of all the wasteful schemes, the Lantau Tomorrow Vision – now known as the Kau Yi Chau artificial islands development project – tops the list. The estimated cost of creating 1,700 hectares of land for development on three artificial islands is now projected to be HK$580 billion, 16 per cent more than when first proposed in 2019.

Some critics have said this could soar to HK$800 billion, and there is no timetable for completion of the project’s 210,000 flats. It is a gargantuan project that makes no sense when you consider there is plenty of land available for affordable public and private housing.