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Following is a question by the Hon Wu Chi-wai and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Yau Shing-mu, in the Legislative Council today (June 3):
Question:
It is learnt that no new three-bedroom public rental housing (PRH) flats have been built since 2009-2010, and the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) will, depending on the circumstances, allocate two PRH flats concurrently to a household with eight persons or more, in order to shorten the waiting time of such category of households. However, some members of the public have relayed to me that the waiting time of a household with six persons or more for allocation of PRH flats is longer as compared with other applicants on the PRH Waiting List. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of a breakdown of the number of PRH flats for households with six persons or more recovered by HA in each of the past three years by allocation district (namely, Urban, Extended Urban, New Territories and Islands) and by reason of recovery;
(2) of a breakdown by allocation district of the respective numbers of (i) households with six to seven persons and (ii) households with eight persons or more, which received the first PRH flat offers, as well as of the number of households with eight persons or more which were concurrently allocated two PRH flats, in each of the past three years;
(3) of the respective average waiting time of the (i) households with six to seven persons and (ii) households with eight persons or more, which received the first PRH flat offers last year, as well as the respective average time the aforesaid two categories of households had waited when signing the tenancy agreements last year;
(4) whether HA will, if consent has been obtained from the applicant concerned, allocate one two-bedroom flat to a household with six persons or more under the existing policy, in order to shorten the waiting time of such category of applicants; if HA will, of the number of such cases in the past three years; and
(5) whether HA will consider extending the scope of application of the arrangement for allocating two PRH flats concurrently to a PRH applicant to include households with six to seven persons?
Reply:
President,
Flats available for letting each year include both new and refurbished flats. The average household size in Hong Kong has been decreasing. Coupled with the fact that the number of public rental housing (PRH) applications from families of six persons or above accounts for a relatively low percentage out of the total number of PRH applications (as at end March 2015, PRH applications from families of six persons or above accounted for only 0.45 per cent of the total number of applications in the same period), in order to optimise the use of valuable land resources, currently large flats are no longer designed in new PRH projects. There are about 124 200 flats in the existing PRH stock which are suitable for letting to families of six persons or above. The demand from applicants with family size of six persons or above can partly be met by refurbished flats.
My reply to the five-part question from the Hon Wu Chi-wai is as follows:
(1) In the past three financial years (i.e. from 2012-13 to 2014-15), the number of flats lettable to families of six persons or above, with breakdown according to allocation districts and reasons of recovery, are shown at Annex.
(2) In the past three financial years, a total of 16 family applicants with eight persons or above were allocated with two flats simultaneously. We have not kept record of the breakdown of first flat offers to applicants by districts.
(3) The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) does not compile separate average waiting time for applicants according to different household sizes. However, in view of the increasing number of PRH applications and the public's concern on the waiting time of PRH applicants, HA conducted a special analysis on general applicants for PRH (i.e. family and elderly one-person applicants) based on the data as at end June 2014. Results of the special analysis can serve for reference purpose. The special analysis indicates that during the period from July 2013 to June 2014, about 750 general applicants with household size of five persons or above accepted flat offers and were housed to PRH. The distribution of their waiting time is set out in Table 1. There is no breakdown of figures in the special analysis for households of six to seven persons or eight persons or above.
Some applicants would choose to accept the second or the third flat offer rather than the first one. However, according to the established formula, waiting time is calculated up to the first flat offer on grounds that HA has already provided a housing opportunity to the applicant in the first flat offer. In other words, applicants would be housed if they accept the first flat offer. It is the applicant's personal decision whether to accept the first flat offer or wait for the remaining offers. Therefore, HA has not compiled statistics on the time which PRH applicants have waited when they are finally housed and signed the tenancy agreement.
(4) PRH flats are mainly allocated in accordance with the prescribed allocation standards and the internal floor area of the flats. Allocation ranges are set for flats of different types and sizes. As newly-built two-bedroom flats are suitable for occupation of four to five persons households in accordance with the prescribed allocation standard, flats suitable for allocation to families of six persons are mainly refurbished flats. In the past three fiscal years (i.e. from 2012-13 to 2014-15), we have successfully allocated about 700 refurbished flats to family applicants of six persons or above.
(5) From the perspectives of both optimising the use of public housing resources and facilitating tenants to look after their families, allocating one large flat to a family of six to seven persons is better than allocating them with two flats. Besides, normally we can only identify two adjacent flats which are suitable for allocation in new PRH projects. Therefore, hitherto we have been relying on refurbished flats for allocation to family applicants of six to seven persons. Taking into account the slight increase in new flat supply in 2015-16 and the fact that distribution of flats among different districts is relatively even, starting from this financial year, we will exercise flexibility in allocating two adjacent flats to families of six to seven persons if their applications are due for allocation and if refurbished flats meeting the allocation standard of such family size are not available at that time. However, we must stress that since it would consume more PRH resources in using two flats, instead of one, to meet the demand of families of six to seven persons, given the huge demand for PRH, we must utilise resources in a prudent manner.
Ends/Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:15
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