Yet building artificial islands in Hong Kong has a number of vexing complications, starting with the price tag. It’ll cost at least an eye-popping HKD$500 billion (US$63.8 billion or $87.2 billion), the South China Morning Post reported, and the tab could double. There are also technical and political challenges—a November poll showed 49 percent of the public opposes the plan—as well as massive environmental costs, though the government says it has chosen a less ecologically sensitive area for development.
HONG KONG (Jan 3): Hong Kong, the world’s least affordable property market, has a plan to tackle its housing crisis: build four artificial islands equal to about a fifth the size of Manhattan that could house more than a million people.
The government-backed plan to create a gleaming property and commercial hub has been tried before—Palm Jumeirah, the palm-shaped archipelago in Dubai filled with luxury developments; Forest City, a housing project for 700,000 people in Malaysia; and Jurong Island in Singapore, which houses chemical and energy facilities.
