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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-kin and an oral reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, in the Legislative Council today (July 14):
Question:
It has been reported that recently property prices are soaring continuously, and have become out of tune with the affordability of the general public, and that difficulty in purchasing a home has become a major problem in the community of Hong Kong. The Secretary for Transport and Housing indicated earlier that the responsibility of the Government at present was only to enable members of the public to "have a place to live". In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows the respective current numbers of sandwich class families whose monthly incomes exceed the limit for applying for public rental housing (PRH) but are below the following amounts: $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, the "average monthly household income" and the "median monthly household income" for the first quarter of 2010, together with breakdowns by the number of family members (i.e. one member, two members, three members, four members, five members, six or more members);
(b) whether measures are in place to enable the aforesaid sandwich class families, which are not eligible to apply for PRH but may not be able to afford a private property, to "have a place to live"; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) given that the Government is conducting a five-month Public Consultation on Subsidising Home Ownership, how the authorities collect the views of such sandwich class families, and whether they will conduct a detailed statistical survey and study on the housing problems and housing situations of such sandwich class families, with a view to bringing up such issues for focused discussion by the community during the consultation period?
Reply:
President,
(a) For the reply to part (a), according to the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), owing to the limited sample size of the General Household Survey (GHS), the average monthly income is easily affected by a few extreme values in the sample and the sampling error of the "average monthly household income" compiled from GHS may be quite large. From a statistical point of view, the use of average income data is not appropriate in this context. As requested, we now provide the numbers of households with income higher than the Waiting List income limits (WLILs), but lower than the amounts as specified in the question and lower than the "median monthly household income".
According to the findings of the GHS, in the first quarter of 2010, there were about 400,000 non-owner occupied households living in private housing. Among them, the number of one-person households with a monthly household income higher than the WLIL but lower than $20,000, $30,000 and $40,000 were 28,500, 38,900 and 46,600 respectively. The WLIL for one-person applicants was higher than the "median monthly household income" for all one-person families in Hong Kong.
For two-person families, the number of households with monthly income higher than the WLIL but lower than $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 and below the "median monthly household income" for all two-person families in Hong Kong were 14,800, 34,200, 45,700 and 2,000 respectively.
For three-person families, the number of households with monthly income higher than the WLIL but lower than $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 and below the "median monthly household income" for all three-person families in Hong Kong were 10,800, 23,700, 36,000 and 9,300 respectively. For four-person families, the figures concerned were 3,900, 16,300, 24,700 and 9,200 respectively.
As the WLIL for five-person applicants was very close to $20,000, no five-person households with household income higher than WLIL but lower than $20,000 were found in the sample of the GHS conducted in the first quarter of 2010. The number of households with monthly income higher than the WLIL but lower than $30,000, $40,000 and below the "median monthly household income" for all five-person families in Hong Kong were 3,100, 7,200 and 3,200 respectively.
The WLILs for households with six persons or above exceed $20,000. The number of households with monthly income higher than the corresponding WLIL but lower than $30,000, $40,000 and below the "median monthly household income" for families with six persons or above in Hong Kong were 800, 2,600 and 2,100 respectively.
(b) and (c) The Government is committed to the provision of public rental housing for low-income families in need and this commitment will continue. This, however, does not mean that the Government disregards the home ownership needs of the general public. Government's policy regarding residential property market is to respond to market demand through the supply of land, with the Application List System as the main axle supplemented by flexible improvement measures and land auctions from time to time so as to increase the land supply. It is the policy objective of the Government to ensure a healthy and stable development of the property market.
For those who aspire for home ownership, there is still a certain amount of supply of small and medium-sized flats. In recent years, transactions valued below $2 million accounted for roughly around 50% of the overall transactions. The Government will continue to keep a close watch on the property market.
To increase the supply of small and medium-sized residential flats, the Government will liaise with the MTR Corporation and the Urban Renewal Authority to increase the supply of small and medium-sized residential flats in the West Rail property development projects and urban renewal projects respectively. The Government is also prepared to sell by open tender a site near the West Rail Long Ping Station in Yuen Long for private residential purpose, and will increase the supply of small and medium-sized flats by specifying in the land sale conditions requirements in terms of the minimum number of flats and the range of the size of those units.
Besides, second hand home ownership scheme (HOS) units are also an important source of supply of small and medium-sized flats. 70% of these HOS flats are located in Urban and Extended Urban areas and most of the recent transactions involving second hand HOS flats were around $2 million. We have come up with possible measures to revitalise the HOS secondary market. The proposals include extension of the mortgage default guarantee period by the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), provision of a loan guarantee scheme by the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation to facilitate owners' premium payment by instalment, as well as streamlining administrative arrangements and enhancing publicity. We will continue to further discuss with the HA on the detailed arrangements.
The Government recognises that the subject of using public resources to subsidise home ownership is being debated in the community. On this important subject, the Government will listen to the views of members of the public to try to identify a consensus on a way forward. An extensive consultation exercise on this issue is being undertaken by the Transport and Housing Bureau to engage the public and stakeholders through a variety of channels, including consultation forums, special sessions, focus group meetings, and an E-engagement platform. We also have open forums for any interested persons to attend.
A series of focus group meetings will be conducted to solicit views through in-depth discussions with a mix of respondents. Target respondents will include persons from different housing status and of different age, including owners or tenants of private housing, tenants of PRH and owners of subsidised sale flats, etc.
In addition, members of the public are invited to send in their views/suggestions through designated channels by email, fax or mail. They are also welcome to browse the webpage and express their views through the e-forum or the dedicated Facebook page. The consultation exercise will last until September 17, 2010 and the results will be submitted to the Chief Executive for his consideration.
Ends/Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Issued at HKT 15:26
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