Chief Executive John Lee on Wednesday announced capping the waiting time for public housing at six years, with a target to cut the waiting time to four-and-a-half years by 2026/27, as he revealed plans to boost supply that will include a new scheme for cheaper public rental units.

Delivering his maiden Policy Address, he said the government aims to build some 30,000 units in the coming five years under a new Light Public Housing (LPH) scheme, which alone is expected to increase the production of public units by about 25 percent.

The government confirmed after the speech that LPH would utilise the modular integrated construction approach, under which prefabricated units are constructed in factories. The same approach has been used in building quarantine facilities.

The administration will make use of government and private land with no development plan in the near future and adopt standardised simple design to build these flats that will provide basic facilities, with rents that are lower than traditional public housing in the same district, Lee said.

Under the scheme, those who have been on the waiting list for public housing for three years or more can apply for the new scheme, and that families will be given priority. Tenants will be able to keep their position in the public housing queue.

The government will also launch an advanced allocation scheme for traditional public rental housing (PRH) – a plan first mentioned in Lee's election manifesto – to allow people to move in before other facilities in the area are ready. About 12,000 units could be available over the next five years.

"Taking into account the some 30,000 LPH units, overall public housing production will increase to around 158,000 units in the next five years, including the 12,000 PRH units provided under the PRH Advance Allocation Scheme. This represents a significant increase of some 50 percent compared to 105,000 units in the previous five-year period," he said.

The CE said the government will introduce a new index to reflect the composite waiting time for subsidised rental housing.

"On the basis that the number of newly registered applicants and the quantity of recovered PRH units will remain unchanged at the current level, the target is to reduce the Composite Waiting Time for Subsidised Rental Housing from six years to about 4.5 years in four years' time," Lee said.

At an afternoon press conference after unveiling his policy blueprint, he described the target to cut the waiting time for public housing to four-and-a-half years as ambitious yet realistic.

"We are committed to this target, which I think may not be something that you will easily see previously. But this is something we want to make happen.

"And I thank my team for coming up with realistic and practical solutions to address people's crying concern for reducing having to wait for six years for a public housing flat."

The CE added that a new pilot scheme to encourage private developers to take part in building subsidised sale flats will be launched as well.

And there will be a minimum-size requirement for new subsidised sale flats.

From 2026/27, they must be no smaller than 26 square metres, or about 280 square feet.
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Last updated: 2022-10-19 HKT 18:24