*******************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
The Hong Kong Housing Authority's (HA) Subsidised Housing Committee (SHC) today (March 24) discussed findings of the review of Waiting List (WL) income and asset limits for public rental housing (PRH) for 2014/15, and endorsed the limits for respective household sizes with effect from April 1. (See table attached)
"The WL income and asset limits are reviewed annually based on the established mechanism to keep them in line with prevailing socio-economic circumstances. Overall, the WL income and asset limits for 2014/15 will increase by an average of 8.4 per cent and 4.4 per cent respectively over those for 2013/14. Taking four-person households as an example, the monthly income limit will increase from $22,140 to $23,910 and the asset limit will go up from $436,000 to $455,000," a spokesman for the HA said.
Under the established mechanism, the WL income limits are derived using a household expenditure approach, which consists of housing costs and non-housing costs, plus a contingency provision. Housing costs measure the cost of renting a private flat comparable to PRH. This depends on the differential unit rents of private accommodation and reference flat sizes. The non-housing cost is determined with reference to the latest Household Expenditure Survey conducted by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), with adjustments made according to the latest movements in the Consumer Price Index (CPI)(A) (excluding housing costs), or the change in the nominal wage index obtained through the Labour Earning Survey conducted by the C&SD as the income factor, whichever is higher. As regards the WL asset limits, they are adjusted with reference to the movements in CPI(A) over the year.
"Under the new limits, we expect the number of eligible households will increase. We will continue to closely monitor the number of applications on the WL, with a view to maintaining the average waiting time (AWT) target for WL general applicants at about three years," the spokesman said.
Waiting time refers to the time taken between registration on the WL and first flat offer, excluding any frozen period during the application period (e.g. when the applicant has not yet fulfilled the residence requirement; the applicant has requested to put his/her application on hold pending arrival of family members for family reunion; the applicant is imprisoned, etc). The AWT for general applicants refers to the average of the waiting time of general applicants housed to PRH in the past 12 months.
Ends/Monday, March 24, 2014
Issued at HKT 18:03
NNNN
