Liber Research Community is a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

that focuses on researching land and development policies.

History

The group was created in 2009 by postgraduates, including Chan Kim-ching, who studied geography and planning. In 2017, it released a report of about 9,800 houses in the

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

that were suspected to be involved in the illegal trading of ding rights. In 2020, it found 800 more village houses that were suspected to be illegally traded within the past 2 years. In 2018, it published a research report stating that the government had underestimated the amount of

brownfield Brownfield is previously-developed land that has been abandoned or underused, and which may carry pollution, or a risk of pollution, from industrial use. The specific definition of brownfield land varies and is decided by policy makers and l ...

sites in the New Territories, with the government estimating 1,300 hectares, and Liber Research Community finding 1,521 hectares. Additionally in 2018, it found that around 300 hectares of government land was underutilized. In 2019, it released research where HK $9.4 billion of stamp duty was exempted in the past 10 years, when property buyers used companies to buy and sell properties via shares transfers. In 2021, it determined that nano flats, defined as units below 260 square feet, accounted for 13% of all new units in 2019, and were the result of government policies, including the reduction the amount of windows required in an apartment. ''

SCMP The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...

'' later released an opinion piece based on the research, stating that construction of nano flats should be curbed. In May 2021, it released a report titled ''Research Report on Development Potential of Vacant Small House Land'', which determined that of a total of 3,380 hectares of village-type land, 1,548.8 hectares were idle and privately owned, with a separate 932.9 hectares of idle land belonging to the government. It determined that of the 1,548.8 hectares of privately owned idle land, 149.1 hectares appeared to be scheduled for illegal development of small houses, where collusion between developers and villagers was likely. In June 2021, it released ''Missing Brownfields- Hong Kong Brownfields Report 2021'', a collaborative report with Greenpeace East Asia where together, they found a total of 1,950 hectares of brownfield sites, 379 more hectares than the government was previously able to locate.

Research topics

According to its website, it lists 5 primary research areas: # Hong Kong Land Research # Housing Policy Research # Open Government Research # Food Safety Research # Hong Kong-China Relation Research

History

Research topics

Publications

See also

References

External links