Hong Kong's property market has picked up, negative-equity cases have fallen sharply, and the public and investors have regained confidence in the market, said Michael Suen, secretary for Housing, Planning Lands Saturday.

At the Housing Conference titled "New Thinking in New Era", he said figures for the past 12 months showed that "Hong Kong's housing policy is heading in the right direction, and its future economic prospects are encouraging."

"Coupled with the government's commitment to a repositioned housing policy, we hope this will continue to boost the public's confidence in the property market."

However, he added that people remain concerned about when property supply and demand will become more balanced.

According to him, about 26,000 new flats will be completed this year and around 21,000 next year. And the figure will be about 16,000 units in 2006 and 11,000 in 2007.

He said the government will continue to meet market demand by making sufficient land with a balanced mix of sites available through the Application List system. It will carefully take prevailing market conditions and development needs into consideration when it draws up the 2005-06 Application List early next year.

"We will also consider other relevant factors, such as the attractiveness, location and variety of sites, in order to meet the different interests of different developers," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2004)