Can the Lands Resumption Ordinance offer a way out of Hong Kong’s housing crisis and quell protests?
- Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing party has called on the government to seize private developers’ land for public housing
- Some accuse Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong of trying to win back voters it fears lost ahead of district council elections
A front-page advertisement, placed by Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing party in a local newspaper on Wednesday and calling on the government to seize private developers’ land for public housing, set many talking.
Some say the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) made that move to woo voters ahead of upcoming district council elections, knowing that its popularity has slipped since it took the government’s side in the extradition bill saga that triggered the ongoing protests.
Others say the politicians are helping to divert attention from the civil unrest that has gone on for more than three months and become increasingly violent.
What raised eyebrows, however, was the way mainland China’s state mouthpieces chorused on Friday that unaffordable and inadequate housing was a cause of the protests. They endorsed the DAB suggestion to use the Lands Resumption Ordinance to seize private owners’ land, and urged the city’s big developers to “show their sincerity” and help the government out of the ongoing crisis.
Hong Kong developers are estimated to own a huge land bank of 1,000 hectares of abandoned farmland. If the government seizes 150 hectares of usable land, it would be able to build 170,000 public homes within 10 years.
While Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has yet to state her view, the Post looks at what the legislation in the spotlight is about.
