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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
In response to press enquiries relating to the latest average waiting time (AWT) for public rental housing (PRH), a spokesman for the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) replied as follows today (May 12):
It is the objective of the Government and HA to provide PRH to low-income families who cannot afford private rental accommodation, and to maintain the target of providing first flat offer to general applicants (i.e. family and elderly one-person applicants) at around three years on average. As at end-March 2016, there were about 150 500 general applications for PRH. The AWT for general applicants was 3.9 years. Among them, the AWT for elderly one-person applicants was 2.3 years.
Waiting time refers to the time taken between registration for PRH and first flat offer, excluding any frozen period during the application period (for example 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 those general applicants who were housed to PRH in the past 12 months.
The increasing number of PRH applicants and the time required for identifying suitable land for public housing production inevitably adds pressure upon the AWT. In fact, the Government has, on various occasions, including meetings of the Legislative Council and HA, forewarned that the AWT for general applicants may depart from the around three years' target due to the increasing number of PRH applications and the tight supply of PRH. While the latest AWT for general applicants exceeds three years, we will strive to achieve the target of providing the first flat offer to general applicants at around three years on average in the long run in order to guide the efforts of HA, relevant government departments and the public to work together towards identifying more land for PRH developments and expediting public housing production.
The Government has adopted 460 000 units as the long term housing supply target for the ten-year period from 2016-17 to 2025-26, of which 60 per cent will be public housing comprising 200 000 PRH units and 80 000 subsidised sale flats. The Government will continue to adopt a multi-pronged approach to increase housing land supply in the short, medium to long term, in order to help meet the demand for housing land.
In addition to increase in the number of new PRH flats, HA recovers a net annual average of some 7 000 existing flats through flats returned from existing tenants and enforcement action against abuse of PRH resources. There may also be more recovery of flats from tenants who purchase the subsidised sale flats as they come on stream. These measures will help meet the housing needs of those who cannot afford private rental accommodation.
To meet the demand for PRH, HA will work closely with relevant government departments to identify suitable sites for PRH development, including increasing the development intensity of developed areas, rezoning of existing land and development of new development areas. The implementation of these measures to increase land supply is not at all ease. The community as whole needs to render its support and accept the necessary trade-offs.
Besides, in light of the views of the Ombudsman and HA's Subsidised Housing Committee, we have uploaded the paper on the special analysis of the housing situation of general applicants every year onto the HA Paper Library on the website and providing a link at the "Flat Application" webpage. Meanwhile, we have also uploaded the waiting time distribution of general applicants housed to PRH over the past year by their district choice and household size onto the website, with a view to further enhancing the transparency of information. We will also continue to provide relevant information through different channels, which include explaining the definition of AWT and its calculation basis in details in the application guide for PRH and on the website; publishing the latest PRH allocation status of different family sizes in different districts in newspapers and on the website on a monthly basis; uploading the latest quarter-end figures of PRH applications and AWT in about five weeks' time after the end of each quarter onto the website; as well as releasing the latest public housing production forecast for the next five years through the website, and updating the forecast on a quarterly basis.
As regards the enquiry about the number of non-elderly one-person applications under the Quota and Points System (QPS), there were 143 700 and 134 300 QPS applications as at end-December 2015 and end-March 2016 respectively. The decrease in the number of QPS applications is mainly because following the decision of HA's Subsidised Housing Committee to refine the QPS in October 2014, regular checking has been conducted on the eligibility of QPS applicants since February 2015, and those applications found ineligible after the checking have been cancelled.
Ends/Thursday, May 12, 2016
Issued at HKT 20:56
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