The Housing Authority announced yesterday the latest actual housing construction volume of public housing. In 2021/22, 25,814 units were built, more than double the previous year, the highest in the past three years, and the highest in the past ten years. second. Of the newly built housing, 21,764 units were public rental housing, the highest since 2004/05. In addition, the Housing Panel of the Legislative Council held a meeting yesterday on topics such as the "Assembly and Synthesis" construction law project and the "Design and Build" procurement model. The HA said that it plans to further adopt the "assembly and synthesis" method to build about 20,000 units. However, some members are disappointed with the current progress of the government's construction of public housing, pointing out that the current planning time of 48 to 60 months is more than a year longer than the standard of 25 years ago.
According to the latest data from the Housing Authority, nearly 26,000 public housing units were built last year, of which 21,764 were public rental housing and 4,050 were subsidized sale units (HOS, GSH, etc.).
The Housing Panel of the Legislative Council held a meeting yesterday to discuss issues related to the "Assembly and Synthesis" building law project and the "design and build" model. The Housing Authority stated that the assembly method is currently used in three public housing projects, including Tak Tin Street in Kwun Tong, Area 99 in Tung Chung and two sites in the Anderson Road Quarry, which are expected to provide a total of about 2,000 units. Completion is due by 2027 at the latest, with plans to further adopt the law and build around 20,000 units.
Leung Kin-man, Deputy Director of Housing (Development and Construction), said at the meeting that 20,000 units are mainly built in new development areas, because there are certain prerequisites for building housing using the assembly method, including the need for less restrictions on the transportation network and provision of temporary storage space place to be carried out.
Liu Guoxun: The current construction time is unacceptable
Members of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, Lau Kwok-hsun and Chen Xuefeng, who participated in the meeting, told the media after the meeting that they were disappointed with the progress of the government's construction of public housing. Citing documents submitted by the government earlier, Lau Kwok-hsun pointed out that it takes 48 to 60 months for the government to build public housing. It will take 37 months, and the current progress is more than a year slower than 25 years ago.
Lau Kwok-hsun continued to point out that the government representative explained the difficulty of building houses at present, but he believed that the statement was not valid, because the public housing built 25 years ago was not much different from the present, and it was also necessary to reserve social welfare facilities; However, in the past 25 years, the construction technology should also be improved, so the current construction time is unacceptable.
Chen Xuefeng also pointed out that "assembly and synthesis" can only save two months of construction work without compressing the overall construction time. He doubts that the cost of the method is higher than that of traditional construction methods. "It is expensive and not much faster, and the cost-effectiveness is questionable." And the "design and build" model can only be four months faster than it is now.
In order to speed up the construction of public housing, Liu Guoxun said that the newThe Government proposes to set up a "Land and Housing Supply Coordination Group" and a "Public Housing Project Action Working Group". The two groups should do a good job of division of labor. The former should actively follow up, compress and streamline the land reclamation process, and shorten the time for raw land to become mature. Looking for more land, the latter should work hard on how to shorten the construction period in administrative procedures, speed up and coordinate approvals between departments, etc., and strive to reduce the construction period to 37 months or less. 100 days after the establishment of the two groups, the former should explain to the public how many units to build and how to achieve it in three years; the latter should explain how to reduce the construction time.
