Ballot drawing for De Novo

High property prices, heavy rentals and housing difficulties are part of  social grievances. Enabling the grass roots to move into public housing and the middle class to buy homes has always been a policy priority of the current-term Government. After three and a half years of hard work, we now see a marked increase in housing supply and a continued fall in property prices and rentals.

As I proposed in the 2015 Policy Address, we must "actively explore ways to increase the supply of subsidised sale flats through a multi-pronged approach by engaging public or non-profit-making organisations including the Housing Authority, the Hong Kong Housing Society, the Urban Renewal Authority and the Hong Kong Settlers Housing Corporation Limited. By so doing, more property choices and home ownership opportunities will be provided for low and middle-income families".

This morning, ballots were drawn by the Urban Renewal Authority to determine applicants' order of flat selection for its first subsidised housing project, De Novo at Kai Tak. Having received more than 10 000 applications, this batch of flats is oversubscribed by nearly 37 times.

It is not easy to solve the housing problem, but we have made some achievements after three and a half years of persistent efforts. The Government will continue to suppress demand for local property from speculators, investors and buyers from outside Hong Kong. We will also keep up our efforts in increasing the public rental housing, subsidised housing and private housing supply.

De Novo is an example.

March 2, 2016