The disputes between developers and the land have been heated up
Some political parties have also offered advice to the Government to recover farmland under the Land Resumption Ordinance to solve the housing shortage problem. When developers yelled, New World Development (017) suddenly volunteered to donate land to donate 3 million square meters of farmland to government and social enterprises, equivalent to 1.5 Victoria Park area, accounting for about 17 million square meters. The farmland reserve is about 18% and it is also the first developer to donate agricultural land. Zheng Zhigang, Executive Vice President of the New World, stressed that “the donation of land is irrelevant to the regulations on land resumption.” In the future, it is necessary to be responsible to different stakeholders and assume more social responsibilities, not just considering the interests of shareholders.
Zheng Zhigang announced the donation plan at the performance meeting of the New World
It is expected that the relevant land will be used for building public housing and developing social housing. It will help to alleviate the housing problem. In order to avoid misunderstanding of the Group’s interest, the donated farmland. There is no other land reserve in the vicinity, but the location and valuation of the donated land have not been disclosed. It is only said to involve multiple regions. The Group has earmarked a reserve of 1 million square feet of agricultural land for the development of social housing. It has confirmed that there will be three sites in the vicinity of Tin Shui Wai MTR Station. The area of about 28,000 square feet will be developed to “Guang Cun”, which is expected to benefit over 10,000 grassroots.
“To have light” Chief Executive Officer Yu Wai-ye said that he is applying to the Government for the “Guang Cun” project. As the development of agricultural land requires application for change of use, the approval period may be longer. I hope that it will be launched as soon as possible in 2022. If the government recovers the latest compensation price of agricultural land, the amount of land donated by the New World is 1,372 million yuan. The analysis assumes that the final 2 million square meters will be used for housing construction and will be developed by 5 times. It is equivalent to providing 20,000 units.
Willing to negotiate with the government to increase supply
According to an earlier report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the four local developers have held more than 100 million square meters of farmland, with Henderson Land (012) and Sun Hung Kai Properties (016) holding about 45 million square meters and 31 million square meters respectively. Group (1113) only held 9 million square meters. A spokesman for Henderson said in response to this enquiry that in the past, I have donated land for the construction of elderly homes, youth hostels and provision flats for transitional housing. I am willing to consult with the Government to help increase supply and cater for the needs of different sectors. Donate farmland. Cheung Kong said that it takes time for the development of agricultural land for housing development, and it will take a long time for the people in need to benefit. This will be studied. The Group and the Li Ka Shing Foundation have been supporting charitable projects with donations. Xindi has not responded. The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Real Estate Developers Association, Mr Leung Chi-chien, said that the Chamber of Commerce had in principle exchanged views with the Government on the development of agricultural land and requested to cooperate with the Government to deal with the “sun-bathing” agricultural land. It was not a donation. He bluntly said that “there are real estate developers donating land to do good things”. They think that the practice has nothing to do with whether the Government has cited the Lands Resumption Ordinance. It means that if the real estate developers are compensated by the government, they will not be able to accept the land.
Scholars plan to take 6 to 10 years
Mr. Mai Cuicai, an associate professor in the Department of Finance and Decision-making at the University of Hong Kong, said that it takes at least 6 to 10 years for a farmland to be completed into a residential property. During this period, it will encounter resistance against it and it will be “good or bad” for solving the housing supply. He pointed out that donating land or being accused of conflict of interest, but not commenting on whether the developer’s practice is to reduce criticism, means that the behavior of listed companies to give back to the society is worth encouraging. It is not considered that donation will become a trend.