The government announced on Friday that it will put up for tender a residential site in Tsuen Wan, as well as a commercial plot in Mong Kok, in the fourth quarter of this financial year.

Development secretary Bernadette Linn said around 490 private flats will be built on the Tsuen Wan site on Po Fung Road.

Altogether, she said a total of 16,070 private flats will be completed within this fiscal year, exceeding the annual target by around 25 percent.

The commercial site at the junction of Sai Yee Street and Argyle Street will provide around 141,600 square metres of gross floor area.

“To utilise this site situated at a prime urban location, we will require the developer via the land sale conditions to provide social and infrastructural facilities specified by the government, including social welfare facilities, a community hall, a public transport interchange, cross-border coaches stop, as well as public car-parking spaces,” Linn told a press briefing.

She was asked how the downturn in the property market may affect the revenue from land sale.

“We should not be constrained by the prevailing economic situation, or be concerned about the government not being able to fetch a high land premium for individual sites,” she said.

“This is because when we want to achieve a certain policy objective, whether we can fetch a high land premium is not the determining factor. The policy objective of providing land in a continuous and sustained manner is the primary policy objective.”