Hong Kong government’s 100-day report: housing minister aims to cut waiting times, but no quick fix for shortage of homes
- Prefabricated building technology a way to speed up construction, but industry needs to catch up
- Tiny homes below 200 sq ft to stay as these are all some homebuyers can afford, minister says
Hong Kong’s dire shortage of public flats will not be resolved immediately with a report being drawn up by the government, but Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin is looking hard at ways to cut the long waiting time for homes.
In an interview on Thursday, Ho said construction workflow and the use of prefabrication technology were among the ideas being studied to speed up building homes and slash the 6.1-year wait for public rental flats.
She revealed that the way public rental flats were allocated was being reviewed to ensure the city’s low-income residents would get their homes sooner.
However, there would be no change to the current home-ownership ladder, providing subsidised homes by targeting different income groups, and tiny flats could not be eliminated as these were all some people could afford.
“When the report is out, I believe some will question whether we can do even more and build flats faster,” said Ho, an architect by profession. “On the other hand, professionals will know that I need to leave some leeway for the industry to digest [the new measures].”
