Hong Kong Is Building Artificial Islands To Solve Its Housing Problem

Hong Kong is quite well-known for being the most populated and most dense areas in the world. This tiny island is currently holding up to 7.5 million peoples. With the total acreage of just over one thousand kilometer square, each Hong Kong citizen only have 14 meters square per person on average of living space. Many locals also have to live in coffin homes - a type of very tiny and unbearable shared living space. The government of Hong Kong is looking to solve this problem by building artificial islands off its coast.

Lantau Tomorrow Vision

This building project is called " Lantau Tomorrow Vision ". Hong Kong's government is visioning to add more than 1,000  land hectares to its real estate fund. They will make this happen by reclaiming from the low area around Lautau, the biggest island. They estimated the project will cost up to $79 billion. It will result in 260,000 new residential houses. And 70 percents of that 260,000 proprieties has been promised by the government to be reserved for housing for the locals. This expansion is planned to start in 2025 and they expected the first resident to move in by 2032. Still, this plan has been facing oppositions from groups of civilians.

The opposition

One of this group called "Save Lantau", is currently lobbying for the government to drop this project. They are worried that this huge construction project will use up all the money reserves that could be used in better social improvement programs. From a statement of this group, we know that they think this project to be one of the most complex, riskiest and biggest plans in the history of Hong Kong's infrastructure.

Moreover, many groups of global environmental protection are going against this project. Their argument is that this project could put the pink dolphin and many other endangered species that live around Lantau in great risk.