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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 5) approved the allocation plan for 2012/13 (see table), which will provide 32 500 public rental housing (PRH) flats for eligible families, out of which 21 070 flats will go to Waiting List (WL) applicants.
The 32 500 flats for allocation comprise 18 750 new flats and 13 750 refurbished flats.
"As in the past few years, the WL category will be given the biggest share of the allocation, constituting 64.8 per cent of the year's provision. The remaining flats will be allocated to applicants under various categories," a spokesman for the HA said.
A quota of 1 690 flats will be allowed for rehousing non-elderly one-person WL applicants through the Quota and Points System for 2012/13 in accordance with the principle as agreed previously by the SHC.
A total of 2 500 flats will be reserved for the Estate Clearance and Major Repairs Programme for 2012/13, mainly to meet demand arising from the clearance of Block 22 of Tung Tau (1) Estate, So Uk Estate Phase 2 and the four blocks in Phases 7 and 8 of the redevelopment of Pak Tin Estate.
Also, 430 flats will be allocated 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 2012/13. Any extra demand recommended by the Social Welfare Department will be met as necessary with existing resources," the spokesman 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 Housing Department will flexibly deploy this total of 5 500 flats under all the transfer sub-categories in order to maximise the use of resources," the spokesman said.
While the anticipated supply of PRH flats and demand for PRH under the various rehousing categories in the year ahead had been taken into account in the course of drawing up the allocation plan, the spokesman said that the HA would closely monitor any change in circumstances and make every effort to maintain the average waiting time of general applicants in the WL at around three years.
At today's meeting, the SHC also endorsed a one-month rent waiver for all PRH tenants for the month of September this year as a special rent relief measure following the upward rent adjustment of 10 per cent, which comes into effect on September 1, 2012.
"In light of the current economic climate and inflationary pressure, the SHC decided that the HA should adopt a 'sharing of burden' approach with the tenants on the rent increase by introducing the relief measure," the spokesman said.
"For tenants who are paying additional rents, the rent waiver will only cover the net rent. They are still required to pay the portion of the additional rent," he added.
The one-month rent waiver offered by the HA is in addition to the two-month rent relief for PRH tenants to be provided by the Government in July and August 2012, as earlier approved by the Legislative Council's Finance Committee.
The HA will issue letters to all PRH tenants informing them of their new rent effective from September 2012 and the rent waiver arrangements.
Ends/Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Issued at HKT 17:52
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