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Following is a question by the Hon Chan Kam-lam and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Yau Shing-mu, in the Legislative Council today (February 22):
Question:
The rental flats in the public housing estates under the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) recovered by HA are the major source of public rental housing (PRH) flats for allocation other than newly built flats. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
(a) the number of PRH flats recovered by HA in each of the past three years, together with a breakdown by district (Urban, Extended Urban, the New Territories and Islands) and PRH flat type (one/two-person flat, three/four-person flat, five/six-person flat, and seven or more-person flat);
(b) the respective numbers of PRH flats recovered and new flats built by HA which were available for transfer application by tenants as well as allocation to Waiting List applicants and compassionate rehousing applicants in each of the past three years; and
(c) the respective numbers of PRH flats recovered by HA as a result of the original tenants transferring to other flats, receiving other forms of housing subsidy or being served a Notice to Quit in each of the past three years; and the respective numbers of such original tenants who paid 1.5 times rent, double rent and licence fee?
Reply:
President,
Apart from newly built public rental housing (PRH) flats, the PRH flats recovered from existing PRH tenants by the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) are also a significant source of PRH supply. Our reply to the three parts of the question is as follows:
(a) In the past three years (2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11), the number of PRH flats recovered by the HA, breakdown by PRH Waiting List (WL) District, were as appendix I.
With a view to better utilising the PRH resources, there are different allocation ranges for different types of PRH units of various sizes. For example, a two-bedroom unit of Harmony blocks can be allocated to four to six-person households. Therefore, the Housing Department (HD) does not have any breakdown on flats by categories as specified in the question.
(b) In the past three years, the annual number of flats the HA allocated to sitting tenants' transfer; PRH WL applicants; and Compassionate Rehousing cases were as appendix II.
(c) As mentioned above, the HA respectively recovered 18 610, 15 000 and 16 470 PRH flats in the past three years, among which the number of PRH tenants paying additional rent were as appendix III.
PRH flats are recovered by the HA due to various reasons, such as PRH tenants purchasing flats under the Home Ownership Scheme, voluntary surrender by tenants, transfer and flats recovered from tenancy enforcement actions by HD, etc.
Ends/Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Issued at HKT 12:38
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