Hong Kong deputy financial secretary touts public housing progress, shorter waiting times
Hong Kong's deputy financial secretary said public flat waiting times have fallen to 4.8 years, the lowest in over eight years, and pledged to hit a 4.5-year target by 2026-27. Annual public housing completions are set to average over 35,000 units in the next five years, a 73 per cent increase.
Hong Kong's deputy financial secretary and acting housing authority chief told the Legislative Council on 12 November that the city's public housing waiting times have fallen to their lowest level in more than eight years. The average combined waiting time for public rental flats dropped to 4.8 years as of the end of June, down from a high of 6.1 years before the current administration took office.
The official said the government expects to release updated figures for the quarter ending September next week, adding that it remained confident in reaching Chief Executive John Lee's target of reducing the wait to 4.5 years by the 2026-27 financial year.
Under the Long Term Housing Strategy 2026 annual progress report, the government is targeting a total of 420,000 new homes over the next decade, with 294,000 of those being public housing units and 126,000 private homes. The deputy financial secretary said annual public housing completions would average more than 35,000 units over the five years starting in 2027-28, a 73 per cent increase compared with the five-year period before the current government took office and the highest in 25 years.
He credited an innovative scheme launched in late 2022 to build 30,000 'simplified public housing' units for helping to fill a short-term supply gap, and said the historic pattern of 'light at the front, heavy at the back' in supply had been reversed.
To help more families move up the housing ladder, the government plans to increase the proportion of subsidised sale flats to 40 per cent of public housing supply. The Housing Authority and the Housing Society will provide about 73,000 subsidised sale units over the five years from 2027-28, an 85 per cent increase from the previous five-year forecast.
The official noted that the government had launched a survey in October, sending questionnaires to more than 14,000 households, including those in rental flats, subsidised sale housing and private homes, about whether more rental flats should be converted for sale. The results are not expected until next year at the earliest.
He said the administration had already established a clear housing ladder, from public rental flats through green-form subsidised sale flats, Home Ownership Scheme flats, first-home buyer flats and private housing, allowing citizens to join at any level according to their financial situation.
