380 households at Hong Kong public rental estates own private flats, official check finds
- Housing Authority reveals figures as part of audit of 88,000 tenants carried out in October and November last year
- It also orders another 250,000 households to declare whether they own any local residential property before end of May
The Housing Authority, which disclosed the figures in a paper submitted to the Legislative Council, ordered another 250,000 households on Tuesday to declare whether they owned any local residential property before the end of May.
The authority is also investigating about 50 households that have yet to make the required declaration on property ownership as part of an audit of 88,000 tenants carried out in October and November last year. The checks involved home visits and property searches.
“Tenants who are found to have deliberately refused to make declarations or have abused public rental housing flats will have their tenancies terminated,” the document said.
Tenants could be prosecuted if they were found to have made false statements, it added.
The government stepped up its checks on tenants last year after it was revealed that Kwong Kau, 66, the former father-in-law of murdered model Abby Choi Tin-fung, owned a luxury home while also trying to buy a subsidised flat.
Under the present rules, all public rental housing tenants must make an income and asset declaration every two years. Previously, only those having lived in a public housing block for a decade were required to do so.
The authority had reviewed 59,000 households out of the 88,000 by February, and about 190 were confirmed as owning private property.
The government also recorded another 14,900 suspected cases. Among the 11,900 of those households examined, about 190 owned a private home.
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Out of the 380 cases, 110 flats have been returned to the authority, while it has issued notices to vacate the premises and initiated prosecutorial follow-up action against another 60 tenants.
The agency would take action over the remaining 210 households in an orderly manner, it added.
Last year, about 180 tenants were convicted for knowingly making false statements in the asset declarations. Several were given suspended sentences and one was sentenced to prison for two weeks.
The authority recovered more than 2,500 public rental flats in the first 11 months of the past financial year due to tenancy abuse and breach of housing policies.
Hong Kong public housing tenants wait average of 5.8 years to get rental flats
Under current regulations, households that fail to regularly reside at their public rental homes for over three months can be considered to have abused public resources.
Hong Kong has more than 800,000 families living in public rental flats, while the latest figure from December shows that applicants have to wait 5.8 years on average before moving into one.
The authority also intends to give certificates of appreciation and financial rewards to residents who report suspected abuse cases and the flats are reclaimed.
