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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
The Housing Authority (HA)'s Subsidised Housing Committee (SHC) today (June 21) approved the allocation plan for 2011/12 (see table), which will provide 33 300 public rental housing (PRH) flats for eligible families, out of which 23 100 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, constituting 69.4 per cent of the year's provision and exceeding last year's by 1 170 flats. The remaining flats will be allocated to applicants under various categories," the Chairman of the SHC, Professor Anthony Cheung said.
The 33 300 flats for allocation comprise 18 500 new flats and 14 800 refurbished flats.
"In view of the projected supply of new flats in the Urban District in the next few years and a gradual decrease in the number of applicants waiting in the Urban District queue, the Committee approved on a special and one-off basis to offer a chance to WL applicants registered on or before September 30, 2009, to change their choice of district to Urban District if they so wish," Professor Cheung said.
"The Department will soon write to the WL applicants concerned individually to invite them to switch their choice to Urban District having regard to their own circumstances. Nevertheless they are free to decide at any time to revert to their original choice of district or to choose other non-urban districts, and at the same time keep their original registration dates," he said.
Professor Cheung stressed that the present policy of restricting new WL applicants from choosing the Urban District would be maintained. "We will only conduct a review on the feasibility of offering another chance to some existing WL applicants to change their choice of district when there is more supply of flats in the Urban District on a continued basis and subject to availability of resources," he noted.
A maximum of 1 850 flats will be allowed for non-elderly one-person WL applicants for 2011/12 in accordance with the principle as agreed previously by the SHC.
A total of 1 300 flats will be reserved for the Estate Clearance and Major Repairs Programme for 2011/12, mainly to meet demand arising from the clearance of So Uk Estate Phase 2 and Block 22 of Tung Tau (1) Estate.
Four hundred flats will be allowed to cater for rehousing needs to be generated by various clearance programmes implemented by the Government and Urban Renewal Authority.
"For planning purposes, 2 000 flats have been set aside for the Compassionate Rehousing category in 2011/12. Any extra demand recommended by the Social Welfare Department will be met as necessary with existing resources," Professor Cheung said.
A total of 5 500 flats have been reserved for various transfer schemes for existing PRH tenants to meet their housing needs. Among them, 1 500 flats are set aside for overcrowding relief and living space improvement needs.
"The Department will flexibly deploy this total of 5 500 flats under all the transfer sub-categories in order to maximise the use of resources," Professor Cheung said.
Noting that the allocation plan was devised with 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 Authority would closely monitor any change in circumstances and make every effort to meet the target of maintaining the average waiting time at around three years for ordinary WL applicants.
Ends/Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Issued at HKT 17:45
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