The city's Ombudsman has urged housing authorities to speed up the turnover of recovered public rental flats, such as by shortening the period between taking back a home and issuing a refurbishment order.

A probe by the watchdog revealed that it normally took around two and a half months for a home taken back by the Housing Department to be ready for its next tenants to move in, and nearly three months when the Housing Society carries out the process.

"The procedures for the recovery of flats by the Housing Department and the Housing Society, and their arrangements for refurbishment and reallocation of recovered flats need further revamping, to speed up turnover of public housing flats and ensure optimal utilisation of precious public housing resources," Ombudsman Jack Chan said.

In the past five years, the Housing Department has recovered 15,700 public housing flats annually on average. The Housing Society, meanwhile, took back around 1,100 units each year.

Authorities have taken steps to expedite the refurbishment of recovered flats since the watchdog launched an investigation last year, Chan said.

He noted that the Housing Department would issue a refurbishment works order within three days of a public housing tenant moving out, while the Housing Society set the period to within two weeks.

The watchdog said in its report that the two-week period "might raise doubts among members of the public as to whether it is reasonable".

"[The Housing Society] could bring forward the time for notifying the contractors to start work in the estate," Chan said.

He said the Housing Department over the past five years managed to refurbish each recovered flat in 43 days, which is in line with its target.

Ninety percent of renovations of homes recovered by the Housing Society met the completion target of 60 days, but Chan said the body should carry out a "comprehensive review" to cut down the refurbishment period.

In response, the Housing Department pledged to review and study the recommendations in detail to allocate public housing flats to those in need as soon as possible.

The department also noted that it has previously looked into introducing measures such as making sure public housing applicants can move in once the refurbishment of their new home is completed.