The Government released today (September 30) the Long Term Housing Strategy Annual Progress Report 2025 (Progress Report).
 
     According to the established methodology for projection under the Long Term Housing Strategy (LTHS), the gross total housing demand for the next 10-year period is 419 100 units. Hence, the Government set the supply target at 420 000 units. 
 
     "Since the LTHS annual update in 2018, we have revised the public/private split of the new housing supply from 60:40 to 70:30. Balancing the Government's commitment to substantially increase the public housing supply to meet the social demand and the demand for private housing, the Government will maintain the public/private split of the new housing supply of 70:30 for the next 10-year period from 2026-27 to 2035-36. Accordingly, out of the total housing supply target of 420 000 units, the public housing supply target will be 294 000 units and the private housing supply target will be 126 000 units," a spokesman for the Housing Bureau said.
 
     "In the LTHS Annual Progress Report 2024, we announced that the public housing supply would be planned with a gradual move towards a 60:40 ratio between public rental housing (PRH)/Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme (GSH) units and other subsidised sale flats (SSF). To increase home ownership opportunities for citizens, the Government will continue to advance in this direction in the next decade. Correspondingly, the public housing supply target of 294 000 units will comprise 176 000 PRH/GSH units and 118 000 other SSF units," the spokesman added.
 
     Solving the housing problem tops the agenda of the current-term Government. The Housing Bureau has long been actively implementing multiple measures to enhance speed, quantity, quality and efficiency in order to increase the public housing supply as soon as possible. Since the current-term Government took office, more than 103 000 families have been housed to PRH or purchased SSF offered for sale by the Hong Kong Housing Authority and the Hong Kong Housing Society, representing a significant increase of about 50 per cent as compared to approximately 68 500 families in the previous three-year period (i.e. from July 2019 to June 2022). In the next 10 years, the Government has identified sufficient land to meet the public housing supply target of 294 000 units. Under the Government's unremitting efforts, the situation of back-loaded public housing supply has been completely reversed. In the coming five years from 2026-27, the total public housing supply (including Light Public Housing) will reach 189 000 units, an increase of about 80 per cent compared to when the current-term Government took office. In terms of traditional public housing, the supply over the coming five years is expected to reach 169 500 units, comprising about 110 600 PRH/GSH units and about 58 900 other SSF. This means an average annual completion of over 30 000 units, the highest in the past 24 years. In addition, compared to the five-year period at the start of this Government, the supply of Home Ownership Scheme flats is projected to increase by approximately 50 per cent over the original estimates. As in the past, when planning public housing development, the Government will maintain adequate flexibility to ensure that the public housing production can be adjusted in a timely manner in response to changes in the actual circumstances.
 
     As for private housing, the supply target in the coming decade is 126 000 units. The Government will have sufficient land to meet the target in the next 10 years. Besides Government land sales, other sources of private housing land supply include railway property developments and Urban Renewal Authority projects, as well as private development projects. As regards the private housing supply in the shorter term, based on the latest projection at end-June 2025, the supply in the primary private residential property market for the coming three to four years is about 101 000 units. 
 
     With the continuous increase in the public housing supply, the Government has more room to further enhance various housing policies to better address the public's housing needs. To this end, the Housing Bureau has announced four key directions for future housing policy in the Progress Report:
 
(i) encourage citizens to move up the housing ladder;
(ii) optimise the use of existing public housing resources;
(iii) further enhance construction cost-effectiveness and ensure the smooth implementation of public housing programmes; and
(iv) implement the regulatory regime on Basic Housing Units.
 
     Details of relevant measures are set out in the Progress Report on the Housing Bureau's website at https://www.hb.gov.hk/eng/policy/housing/policy/lths/index.html.
 
     According to the "supply-led" and "flexible" principles under the LTHS, the Government updates the long term housing demand projection annually and formulates a rolling 10-year housing supply target. The gross total housing demand takes into account the housing demand derived from the following four components:
 
(i) net increase in the number of households;
(ii) households displaced by redevelopment;
(iii) inadequately housed households; and
(iv) miscellaneous factors.

Ends/Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Issued at HKT 12:00

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