The Task Force on Land Supply has recommended the Government to prioritise studying and implementing eight land supply options to address land shortage in Hong Kong.

Task force Chairman Stanley Wong said the task force submitted its report on the overall land supply strategy and land supply options to the Chief Executive today.

Describing the five-month public consultation it conducted as being one of the most comprehensive and representative public engagement studies in recent years, Mr Wong said more than 29,000 questionnaires and 68,300 submissions were received, and 3,000 members of the public were interviewed.

Mr Wong said the actual shortfall of land supply in Hong Kong should be significantly higher than 1,200 hectares as estimated by the Government earlier.

The community generally agrees the land shortage problem is pressing and that a multi-pronged approach is necessary to break the stalemate, he said, adding most citizens support the development of more land for a land reserve to prepare for rainy days.

After consolidating all opinions, the task force proposed eight options which are generally supported by society.

Three short-to-medium term options include developing brownfield sites, tapping into private agricultural land reserve in the New Territories and exploring alternative uses of sites under private recreational leases, including the development of the 32-hectare portion of the Fanling Golf Course.

These options will free up about 300 hectares of land in the coming eight years but this is not enough to meet the short-to-medium term shortfall, he said.

“There are actually no readily available options that can give us in total more than 800 hectares of land in order to meet the short-to-medium term shortfall, and therefore, what we have been doing and what the Government has been doing is basically to push forward a number of ongoing initiatives.

“The task force is actually using all the responses and data to make sure that we can come up with a consensus among the community as a whole. I think as regards to brownfields, both in terms of the quantitative data as well as the qualitative response, it is actually pointing to majority support of using brownfields as a major source of land supply, particularly in the short-and-medium term,” Mr Wong said.

The five medium-to-long term options include near-shore reclamation outside Victoria Harbour, developing the East Lantau Metropolis, developing caverns and underground space, more new development areas in the New Territories and developing the River Trade Terminal site.

Task force Vice-Chairman Greg Wong said developing the East Lantau Metropolis can provide a large piece of land within a predictable time frame, adding it is crucial to breaking the land shortage stalemate.

On the land supply strategy, the task force called for the Government to draw up a comprehensive and sustained regime of land supply, including sustaining land creation and conducting regular and more frequent updates and reviews of the overall land supply and demand situation.

Mr Wong said the land shortage problem has plagued Hong Kong for a long time, and Hong Kong's advancement will be constrained unless prompt action is taken to resolve it.

He hoped the Government would consider the recommendations in detail and take forward the multi-pronged land supply strategy and various land supply options.

Click here for the report.