Supply-led flats strategy paying off, Leung Chun-ying says in annual work report

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying says the supply-led strategy he adopted when he took office three years ago to ease the housing shortage is starting to bear fruit, with 33,000 private flats expected to be completed this year and next, a 10-year high.

Leung also pledged to "rebuild the housing ladder and play a more active role in housing through the provision of public housing" to tackle soaring prices and rents.

The targets were contained in his annual work report released yesterday, in which Leung concluded his administration had achieved "solid progress" in its work, ranging, however, from the electoral reform proposal that was defeated in the legislature last week, to attracting a record number of visitors to a flower show in March.

The report, available at the chief executive's official website, covers 10 areas, with "housing and land" taking up almost one-fifth of its 54 pages.

Leung briefly touched on the defeat of the political reform plan, concluding that the government had "finished" its work and would now "concentrate on addressing the issues of the economy and people's livelihood".

"It is expected that about 13,000 and 20,000 private housing units will be completed in 2015 and 2016 respectively, a record high in 10 years and about 70 per cent higher than the average of the past 10 years," the report read.

On public housing, the report said there would a total production of about 93,100 homes from now until 2019-20.