Waiting time for Hong Kong public rental flats drops to 5½ years
- Authorities say about 7,000 general applicants given public rental housing, ‘the largest number of flats allocated since the third quarter of 2022’
The latest figures released by the Housing Authority on Monday showed the queuing time for general applicants, referring to families and single elderly people, between April and June decreased by more than two months between the first and second quarters.
“In the second quarter of 2024, about 7,000 general applicants were housed [in] public rental housing, the largest number of flats allocated since the third quarter of 2022,” the authority said.
The average waiting time for a public rental flat has not fallen under five years since 2018 and peaked in March 2022 at 6.1 years.
The government has said it aims to cut the waiting period for permanent and temporary public rental homes to 4½ years by the 2026-27 financial year through initiatives such as the “light public housing” scheme to build 30,000 short-term flats for eligible applicants.
The Housing Authority said it was confident it could achieve the target thanks to the “obvious increase” in public housing, including permanent flats in the New Territories that were set to be ready during this financial year and the next one.
