Housing problem

Northern Metropolis Development
(a long-term solution to many problems)

Click here to watch a short video to more about this project in English. (Click here in Chinese)

350 hectares of land have been identified for building about 330,000 public housing units and 170 hectares of land secured for private housing development for the coming 10 years.
Existing towns (such as Tin Shui Wai) + 6 new development areas and hubs (such as Kwu Tong North / Fanling North) are included.
Transport infrastructure: MTR Northern Link (北環線)

1. Ease housing shortage

The districts, Yuen Long and North District, have 27% of Hong Kong’s total area, but only 1 million of its 7.5 million residents. The plan is to raise that to 2.5 million residents over about 20 years, attracting people from more-crowded parts of a city that is often cited as the world’s least affordable housing market.

2. Innovation and technology hub – Hong Kong’s new growth engine

It will also be home to an “international innovation and technology hub,” in what’s seen as another bid by the Hong Kong government to create a rival to Silicon Valley.

3. Foster the city’s integration into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

Financial burden for the development will be huge:
Some estimated the development will amount to about $300 billion. (Fiscal reserves was at $966.7 billion as of 28 Feb 2021)
The development of wetlands will affect conservation
There are voices in the community that question the adverse impact of developing some wetlands on conservation.
Land resumption will meet with resistance from local residents
Indigenous villagers may be unwilling to be relocated for their history of living in the area
Development timetable takes too much time
With the existing statutory procedures for town planning, environmental impact assessment, land resumption and road works, it will only be completed in 2031 which is 10 years from now.

Self-financing: Land premium can cover the full cost of development even if the ratio of public to private housing is 7 to 3.
Wetland areas that are not properly managed have little ecological area, e.g. 20% of fish ponds are estimated to have been abandoned. The Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) is a fund introduced by the government to help landowners restore some of the dry land and abandoned agricultural land into wetland habitats into the area of ecological value.
The residents were more willing to cooperate and this has gradually become a permanent mechanism. In recent years, land resumption has also been smoother, for example, residents in the North East New Territories have been relocated to Po Shek Wu Estate in Sheung Shui and the future Queen Hill Estate in Fanling.