Let's join together in writing another splendid chapter in Hong Kong's housing history

Since I took office five months ago, the housing issue has been a regular dish on my plate, as well as numerous meetings and activities. As a responsible government, we simply cannot allow the housing situation to deteriorate. We must tackle housing and related land issues without delay.

About 1,000 units at Greenview Villa, a Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) project in Tsing Yi, will be put on sale at 70 per cent of the market price from December 28 this year. Today, I visited the site with Mr Marco Wu Moon-hoi and Mr Wong Kit-loong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the HKHS respectively, to check on the project's progress and take a look at the mock-up flats. I noticed that quality materials and modern designs had been used in the units to meet the expectations of the new generation of home buyers. I am grateful to the HKHS and our colleagues in the civil service for their dedicated efforts in completing this first subsidised housing project launched by the new Government in such a short period of time, thus satisfying at an early date the needs of some families that cannot afford private flats.

In the past few months my team and I have been doing our best to deal with the housing issue. In addition to increasing housing and land supply through short and medium-term measures, we have also sought to manage demand by introducing a new regime of Special Stamp Duty and Buyer's Stamp Duty to serve Hong Kong permanent residents' home purchase needs as a priority and to ensure the steady development of the property market. The Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee is also on track in conducting a comprehensive review and in-depth analysis of future housing needs and community requirements for various types of public and private housing.

This is only a start. My Administration will continue to introduce policy initiatives in a timely manner to assist the grassroots in obtaining better accommodation and help middle-income families buy their own homes, as I pledged in my manifesto.

December 12, 2012