According to a recent forecast by the Housing Authority, there will be an increase in the construction of traditional public housing from 2023/24 to 2027/28, resulting in around 128,200 units being built. This includes regarding 82,800 flats for the public housing/green form home ownership scheme. However, this also includes green home ownership, which the previous government proposed as public housing, even though it should be considered subsidized housing.
Former Secretary of the Transport and Housing Bureau, Chen Fan, was the one who proposed the inclusion of green home ownership as public housing. The new supply of public rental housing will decrease due to this change. The Housing Authority’s annual green home ownership target provides regarding 2,000 to 4,000 units, and the rental and sales ratios originally stood at 71% and 29% respectively. With the subtraction of green home ownership, the actual number of public rental housing units will be reduced to 57%, which may explain why the supply of public housing units has not met the standard in recent years.
The “nanoization” of GSH and HOS units is also contributing to the slow circulation of public housing units. Housing Authority member, Chiu Kwok-wai, stated that “Green form public housing residents hope to improve their living environment by buying HOS flats and green home purchases, but it is really difficult to buy these flats with only a few hundred square feet or even two or three people. If the public housing unit I live in is not too bad, there really isn’t much incentive to move.”
The average wait time for being allocated public housing is currently 5.5 years. As of December last year, the average waiting time for general applicants who were housed in the past 12 months was 5.5 years, while elderly one-person applicants must wait for an average of 3.9 years. Presently, there are around 133,700 general public housing applications and regarding 96,200 non-elderly one-person applications under the Quota and Points System.
【Newspaper】According to the latest forecast of the Housing Authority in September last year, the first five-year period, that is, the construction of traditional public housing from 2023/24 to 2027/28 will increase to regarding 128,200 units, including regarding 82,800 public housing/green form home ownership scheme flats. However, GSH should belong to subsidized housing. The reason why it was included in the category of public housing is that the previous government proposed “Green Home Ownership as public housing”.
Chen Fan, then Secretary of the Transport and Housing Bureau, once proposed “Green Home Ownership as Public Housing”. The first thing to bear the brunt is that the new supply of public rental housing will decrease. Among them, the Housing Authority’s annual green home ownership target provides regarding 2,000 to 4,000 units. The rental and sales ratios were originally regarding 71% and 29% respectively. If the deduction of green home ownership is deducted, the actual number of public rental housing units will be reduced to 57%. This may also be the reason why the supply of public housing units has not met the standard in recent years.
The “nanoization” of GSH and HOS units has also slowed down the circulation of public housing units. Housing Authority member Chiu Kwok-wai said yesterday: “Green form public housing residents hope to improve their living environment by buying HOS flats and green home purchases, but it is really difficult to buy these flats with only a few hundred square feet or even two or three people. If the public housing unit I live in is not too bad, there really isn’t much incentive to move.”
The average wait time for being allocated public housing is 5.5 years
As at the end of December last year, the average waiting time for general applicants who were housed to public housing in the past 12 months was 5.5 years, among which the average waiting time for elderly one-person applicants was 3.9 years. There are currently regarding 133,700 general public housing applications and regarding 96,200 non-elderly one-person applications under the Quota and Points System.
Overall, the issue of public housing, subsidized housing, and the Green Home Ownership Scheme continues to be a complex and pressing one in Hong Kong. While the government has announced plans to increase the construction of traditional public housing units in the coming years, the inclusion of GSH within the category of public housing has raised concerns and slowed down the circulation of available units. With an average wait time for public housing allocation of 5.5 years, it remains to be seen how these policy decisions will impact those in need of affordable housing in the city.
