Following are the remarks by the Secretary for Development, Ms Bernadette Linn, at a media session today (July 11) on the quarterly land sale programme for July to September 2025:
 
Reporter: Why is the Tsuen Wan land plot rolled out this time and what are the Government's expectations on this quarter's land sales? And secondly, what is the Government's strategy in terms of this fiscal year's land sales, given that only two plots are rolled out in the first two quarters? Is the Government confident in terms of the land-buying appetite of the private market and reaching the initial revenue goal?
 
Secretary for Development: First of all, we are rolling out this site in Tsuen Wan in the second quarter of this year because it is a readily available site. We have recently completed the resuming process for this site, and we have taken into account the fact that this is not a particularly large site, and it is relatively still small in scale and located in a mature urban area with good transport connections. So we think this kind of site will be of interest to the developers in the current climate of the property market.
 
     As regards your second question regarding the overall supply for the second quarter, taking into account this Tsuen Wan site and together with six other cases involving lease modifications, we should be able to turn out land capable of supplying close to 5 000 flats, to be more exact, it is 4 950 units in this quarter. So it is a pretty good figure, actually, counting by a quarter. If we take into account also the supply from the first quarter, together it will reach about 6 000 units, about 45 per cent of our annual target for this year. So as a mid-term anticipated outturn, I think it suggests that we are moving in a stable manner towards our annual target.

Reporter: What is the likelihood of seeing some small and medium developers in Hong Kong facing loan defaults amid a downward trend in both the residential and commercial real estate market? And how will that affect the property market and also the sentiment in land bidding?
 
Secretary for Development: You have two questions. On the first one, about the financial situation of the SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) or the developers which are SMEs, I think I am not in a position to comment on the financial position of our developers in general. But looking at the lease modification figures that I have announced just now, we do have six lease modification cases, and not all are what we call major developers, some are small scale. So we can see that the market is actually still moving in quite a healthy manner, with some lease modifications taking place and some other processing. So I would not take a too-pessimistic attitude towards the financial situation of our SME developers.
 
     On your second question, I think the property market has picked up a bit, if we look at the volume of transactions registered in the Land Registry. But again, I have to emphasise that, for the Development Bureau, we are rolling out land for the future development and the future needs of Hong Kong. So we cannot just look at the current movements in the property market. We also have to look ahead. And I think that overall, we are taking a prudent approach for our land sale programme.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Friday, July 11, 2025
Issued at HKT 19:13

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