Developers in Hong Kong last night jointly urged the government to improve the existing land application list system amid heated debate over high property prices in the city.

The Real Estate Developers Association said after a meeting they unanimously believed 'the trigger mechanism by which sites are released for sale should be fine-tuned to allow more land to come on to the market, thereby increasing supply and setting reference marks for land prices'.

However, it stressed it supported the current 'market-driven' policy.

The statement is designed to pressure the government to modify the mechanism introduced in 2002 that requires a developer to agree to pay 80% of a site's base price before it can be put up for auction. Only two sites have been sold in the past two years.

South China Morning Post