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In response to the announcement by the Secretary for Development, Mr Paul Chan, today (February 28) on abolishing land sale by the Application Mechanism and taking full lead in putting up government sites for sale, the Chief Executive, Mr C Y Leung, issued the following statement:
The Development Bureau today announced the Land Sale Programme for the next financial year and abolishing land sale by the Application Mechanism. In other words, the Government will take full lead in putting up government sites for sale depending on the market demand at the time, instead of waiting for developers' applications. This will ensure an increase of supply to the largest extent.
In addition to the new round of demand-side management measures announced last Friday, the Government will continue to step up its efforts to increase the quantity and pace of short-term land supply, and speed up the processing of pre-sale consent applications by developers.
In the coming year, if the Government identifies any additional land available for sale, we will put it for sale as soon as possible.
The introduction of a series of initiatives in the past eight months illustrated that the current-term Government is determined to tackle short, medium and long-term housing problem. The Government will, from time to time according to the latest situation, announce measures to ensure that our property market continues in a healthy state.
Ends/Thursday, February 28, 2013
Issued at HKT 20:37
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