Official: HK to strive to increase public housing supply

This undated photo shows a boy playing on a slide at a playground while other family members watch, at a public housing estate in Tin Shui Wai, New Territories, Hong Kong. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG - The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government will continue to strive to increase public housing supply to meet the home ownership aspirations of low to middle-income families, a SAR government official said Wednesday.


Answering a query at the Legislative Council, Acting Secretary for Housing Victor Tai Sheung-shing said the Housing Authority has organized forums and workshops with industry stakeholders to get their views on proposals on expediting the construction process, construction robotics application and other innovative technologies to enhance quality and to control costs.

The Housing Authority will also follow the directive of Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in the 2022 Policy Address that the saleable area of all subsidized sale flats completed from 2026-27 onward will be no less than 26 square meters in general

“The HA will also collect tenants' feedback of public housing projects after flat in-take by conducting resident surveys to gauge tenants' views on the newly completed public housing, in order to continuously review and enhance the planning, architectural quality and design for public housing developments,” Tai said.

He said the HA will also follow the directive of Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in the 2022 Policy Address that the saleable area of all subsidized sale flats (SSFs) completed from 2026-27 onward will be no less than 26 square meters in general.

“The HA will follow the strategy and direction of the Policy Address when determining the flat mix of SSFs put up for sale in future,” Tai said.

LegCo member Doreen Kong Yuk-foon had stated in her query that a number of public rental housing tenants have complained that flats under the Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme are small and expensive while Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats are priced too high.

To make HOS flats more affordable, Tai said the HOS pricing mechanism was revised in 2018 so that flat prices are delinked from the price of private property market.

 “Under the revised pricing mechanism, at least 75 percent of the flats for sale can allow non-owner occupier households earning the median monthly household income to spend no more than 40 percent of their monthly income on mortgage payment,” he said.  

“According to the revised pricing mechanism, the average discount rate of the last three HOS sale exercises is around 42 per cent, which is higher than the discount rate of around 30 per cent before the mechanism was adjusted,” he added.

 

Source:China Daily [2023-05-10]