In announcing its annual housing report, the Our Hong Kong Foundation said private housing supply is expected to remain stable in the coming 10 years but that the trade war may affect market sentiment.
It said with the number of unsold units continuing to accumulate, developers may be reluctant to bid for sites in land sales.
But foundation vice president Ryan Ip urged the government not to stop offering sites for sale.
“The government can sell land on smaller sites and also reduce the number of sites to be sold in order to stabilise the market situation,” he said.
“The government can also improve land-sale conditions by, firstly, making available for sale more spade-ready plots, meaning land that will require less site formation or other pre-construction approvals.”
The report also showed that together with light public flats, an average of 37,000 public housing units will be completed annually in the next five years.
But it said construction expenditures for public housing units are expected to increase by more than 70 percent in the coming four years, mainly due to the complexity of construction sites.
The foundation’s head of land and housing research, Jason Leung, said that with the positive outlook on coming public housing supply, the government should change its strategies.
“Given that there is a supply buffer above the long-term housing strategy target, we think that there is room for the authorities to reveal the necessity of building on sites with high construction complexities,” he said.
