People take photos at a playground in a public housing estate in Hong Kong on Aug 29, 2021. (BERTHA WANG / AFP)
Hong Kong’s Housing Authority said on Monday that an estimated 27,600 public rental housing (PRH) units will be available for allocation in 2022-23.
There will be about 12,500 new flats and about 15,100 refurbished ones up for allocation to different categories of applicants, the authorities said in a press release.
About 73.2 percent, or 20,200 flats, will go to PRH applicants, it added.
“This estimation is not an upper limit. If there is any new PRH estate completed ahead of schedule, we will allocate the PRH flats concerned to the applicants as soon as possible,” said a spokesman for the Housing Authority.
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Any PRH flats exceeding the estimate in any particular category will be allocated to the PRH applicants before the close of the year, the spokesman added.
In 2021-22, the number of flats taken up by applicants on or before March 31, 2022 was 25,955 flats, representing 83.7 percent of the original estimation
The announcement came after the Subsidised Housing Committee of the Housing Authority approved the estimated PRH allocation for 2022-23.
For the year 2021-22, the number of flats taken up by applicants on or before March 31, 2022 was 25,955 flats, representing 83.7 percent of the original estimation.
The key reason for the difference was that the government announced on Feb 15 the use of Blocks 1 and 7 of Queens Hill Estate in Fanling and Heng King House of Lai King Estate in Kwai Chung (total 3,098 flats) as community isolation facilities in view of the severity of the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, said the spokesman.
"Since the actual intake date of these PRH flats had to be deferred by a few months to May or June 2022, their allocation was not reflected in the figures this year. In addition, the severity of the COVID-19 epidemic has affected the progress of allocation.”
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The annual allocation quota for non-elderly one-person applicants under the Quota and Points System (QPS) is set at 10 percent of the total number of flats to be allocated to PRH applicants with an upper limit of 2,200 flats. Based on this principle, the allocation quota for QPS applicants in 2022-23 is 2,020 flats or 10 percent of the total number of flats to be allocated to PRH applicants, whichever is less, according to the press release.
Total 350 flats will be reserved for the category of clearance rehousing residents affected by clearance projects planned by different departments, while another 120 will be set aside for rehousing residents affected by the Urban Renewal Authority's redevelopment projects scheduled for 2022-23.
For the category of Compassionate Rehousing (CR), 1,500 flats will be reserved for 2022-23.
The authorities will set aside 4,410 flats for various transfer purposes for the same period, including transfer of under-occupation households, Territory-wide Overcrowding Relief Exercise and the Living Space Improvement Transfer Scheme.
Approximately 2,310 flats will be flexibly deployed by the Housing Authority for other transfer purposes including Special Transfer, Harmonious Families Transfer Scheme, and Full Rent Exemption for Elderly Under-occupation Transfer and Management Transfer.
“We will reserve 1 000 flats under the Civil Service Public Housing Quota Scheme in 2022-23 as in 2021-22," the spokesman said.
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Being one of Hong Kong’s biggest problems, housing played high on the policy platform of incoming chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu. He promised to work to raising the pace, efficiency and quantity of housing development as well as the land lots it requires.
Under the Hong Kong government’s restructuring plan passed by lawmakers on Wednesday, the Transport and Housing Bureau will be split into two separate bureaus to take care of transport and housing related affairs respectively.