SCM Post opinion piece:
Blinkered view in search for land
There’s plenty of supply if you look in the right places but with powerful forces at work, it’s easier to stiff the little guy
The one redeeming quality of the Leung Chun-ying government has been its unrelenting efforts to increase land and housing supply. But when there are obvious supply solutions that officials never mention, you know something is amiss.
I am, of course, referring to the enormous land banks developers have amassed, and massive New Territories lots that have been reserved for small village houses.
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I have no trouble with developing brownfield sites – former agricultural land occupied, often illegally, by businesses such as car parks and storage containers. It’s long overdue. But more reclamation?
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Unfortunately, our tycoons and the Heung Yee Kuk, the rural power broker, still enjoy extensive influence. So better destroy the environment and evict the little guy.
http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2041715/blinkered-view-search-land