Transparency inspires trust in HK land sales

Nagging controversies surrounding the TV drama series Woju have brought the common interest of local officials and developers in high land prices under the public spotlight.

I didn't know of the series, shown on a Beijing television station, until it was publicly denounced by the government for, among other things, highlighting an issue others chose to ignore. But as a Hong Kong person, I am most familiar with the topic it tries to address.

In the late 1970s, the then British government of Hong Kong made it a policy to finance all capital projects with income from land sales. Since then, land sales have become a major source of public revenue.