Hong Kong to press on with selling residential plots amid warnings of oversupply

Hong Kong will press on with selling residential plots, the development minister has said, despite an earlier warning from a credit-rating agency that oversupply is hurting the property market.

Bernadette Linn Hon-ho also said on Saturday that authorities would not give up on creating artificial islands in the waters off Lantau as part of plans for securing future land supply.

“We have a scientific basis for the need for residential land,” she said on a radio show.

Linn added that authorities had estimated the demand for land for the next 10 years, taking into account social needs as a result of redevelopment work across the city.

Residential land sales would be launched each quarter according to the actual market situation at the time, she said.

Asked about the government’s persistence with the sales amid some opposing voices, Linn stressed that authorities should address residents’ demand for affordable homes.