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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
The Housing Authority's (HA) Subsidised Housing Committee (SHC) today (May 19) approved the allocation plan for 2009/10, providing 36,900 Public Rental Housing (PRH) flats for eligible families, among which 24,500 flats will go to Waiting List (WL) applicants.
"As in the past few years, the WL category will be given the biggest share of the allocation, at 66.4 % of the year's provision, representing an increase of 2.4% compared to the previous year," the Chairman of the SHC, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, said.
A maximum of 1,960 flats will be allowed for non-elderly one-person WL applicants subjected to the Quota and Points System, in line with the principle agreed previously to set the allocation for the category at 8% of the flats for WL applicants.
The remaining 12,400 flats will be allocated to applicants under other various categories besides the WL category.
A total of 3,350 flats will be reserved for the Comprehensive Redevelopment, Estate Clearance and Major Repairs category, taking into account the demand arising from the redevelopment of Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate, the clearance of So Uk Estate and the Early Thinning-out Exercise for the clearance of Block 22, Tung Tau (I) Estate.
To cater for the rehousing need generated by various government clearance projects including squatter huts, private tenements and Urban Renewal Authority projects, 550 flats will be reserved.
"For planning purposes, 2,000 flats have been set aside for the Compassionate Rehousing category. However, this figure is not meant to be the ceiling of allocation, and additional flats will be made available to meet extra demand, if recommendations by the Social Welfare Department warrant and resources permit," Professor Cheung said.
A total of 5,500 flats will be flexibly deployed under the Transfer category. Amongst them, 1,500 flats are set side for overcrowding relief and living space improvement needs. The remaining 4,000 flats will be used for different forms of transfer.
Among the 36,900 flats for allocation this year, 18,500 are new flats and 18,400 are refurbished flats.
Noting that the allocation plan was drawn up having regard to the anticipated supply of PRH flats and demand for PRH from various rehousing categories in the coming year, Professor Cheung said that the HA would closely monitor any change in the circumstances.
"We will make every effort to attain our target of maintaining the Average Waiting Time at around three years for ordinary PRH applicants," Professor Cheung said.
Ends/Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:07
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