Liber Research Community

Liber Research Community is a non-governmental organization in Hong Kong 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 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 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 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:


 * 1) Hong Kong Land Research
 * 2) Housing Policy Research
 * 3) Open Government Research
 * 4) Food Safety Research
 * 5) Hong Kong-China Relation Research