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Following is a question by Dr the Hon David Li and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, JP in the Legislative Council today (30 April):
Question:
According to the information on the website of the Ratings and Valuation Department, private residential property rents have risen at a double-digit year-on-year rate since June 2007. The year-on-year rise in February this year reached 23%. The housing component makes up 29% of the Composite Consumer Price Index basket, and the substantial increase in rental costs will thus have a significant impact on the overall inflation rate. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) given that in his reply to my question at the Council meeting on January 9, 2008, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury indicated that the Administration did not know whether it was the landlord or the tenant of a property who benefited directly from the rates concessions granted for the 2007-2008 financial year, of any policy or measure the Government has adopted to reduce the financial burden on renters; and
(b) whether the Government will review the operation of the Application List system with a view to increasing housing supply and hence lowering the rents for private residential properties?
Reply
Madam President,
My reply to the two-part question is as follows:
(a) This year's Budget contains a number of initiatives that can benefit people from different sectors (including those living in rented accommodation) and ease their burden. Apart from waiving the rates for 2008-09, the Government has proposed to –
(1) inject into each domestic electricity account a subsidy of $1,800;
(2) inject $6,000 into the Mandatory Provident Fund account of each low income person;
(3) offer a one-off rebate of 75% of salaries tax and tax under personal assessment, subject to a ceiling of $25,000 per person;
(4) widen the tax band, raise personal allowances and lower the standard tax rate;
(5) adjust the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) payment rates in accordance with the existing mechanism ahead of the normal schedule this year and provide one additional month of the standard rate CSSA payments and Disability Allowance; and
(6) pay one month's rent for the lower income families living in the rental units of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) and the Hong Kong Housing Society (HS), including the tenants living in Elderly Persons' Flats in HS Group B estates.
Families which cannot afford private rental accommodation may apply for public rental housing (PRH) provided by the HA. The Government has pledged to maintain the average waiting time of general PRH applicants at around three years. The HA will adjust the PRH Waiting List income and asset limits every year to take into account the change in household expenditure (including private market rents), to ensure that those who cannot afford private rental housing will be provided with public housing assistance. In the past five years, nearly 110 000 individual and family Waiting List applicants were allocated public housing flats. PRH tenants facing temporary financial hardship may also apply for rent relief through the HA's Rent Allowance Scheme. Moreover, the Social Welfare Department operates the CSSA Scheme which provides a safety net for those who cannot support themselves financially to meet their basic needs.
(b) The Government's policy objective is to ensure the healthy and stable development of the property market. The Development Bureau's policy is to provide adequate supply of land to meet the development needs of our society. In terms of residential land supply, there are 42 residential sites in the 2008-09 Application List, more than any year since the Application List resumed in 2004. The Application List is not the sole source of supply of land for private housing. Apart from the Application List, developers can provide private housing by acquiring land from the private market, by way of lease modification / land exchange of existing land holding, and from railway property development projects and Urban Renewal Authority's development projects. We will closely monitor the land supply situation.
The market-led Application List system has been effective and is working well. The Government has introduced several measures to enhance the operation of the Application List system in the past to facilitate triggering of sites by developers. The Development Bureau has no intention to conduct any fundamental review of the Application List system or to resume scheduled auctions. The District Lands Office/Hong Kong West and South has set up a task force to speed up the processing of lease modification and land exchange applications. To expedite the processing of development projects in general, the Development Bureau will examine if further improvements can be made to urban planning, land administration and approval procedures for building construction with a view to speeding up the supply of land for development and the processing of lease modifications and land exchanges.
Ends/Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:11
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