Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
(7) of the three most common reasons given by ordinary families waiting for PRH for refusing the units allocated to them; whether the Government has reviewed the savings in administrative costs in processing PRH applications with successful allocations on the first offer as compared to those requiring several offers before an allocation is successful?
Reply:
President,
The objective of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is to provide public rental housing (PRH) to those who cannot afford private rental accommodation. With regard to the question raised by the Hon Tang Ka-piu, my reply is as follows:
(1) Given the limited PRH resources, it is the prevailing policy of the HA to accord priority to general applicants (i.e. family applicants and elderly-one person applicants) over non-elderly one-person applicants in the allocation of PRH flats. The relative priority of flat allocation to general applicants is determined according to the principle of rational allocation of PRH resources and strictly in accordance with the order of registration date/G-number Equivalent Date (Note) (if any) of applications. Apart from the general applicants, we have set another queue for non-elderly one-person applicants and the priority of flat allocation is determined by the Quota and Points System (QPS). Unlike that of general applicants, the order of the applications is not in accordance with the sequence of the date of registration, but is determined by the total points accumulated by such applicants under QPS.
To cater to the housing needs of the elderly, encourage younger families to take care of their elderly parents or dependent relatives, and provide incentives to families applicants to encourage childbearing, there are several allocation priority schemes under the HA, including “Elderly Persons Priority Scheme”, “Harmonious Families Priority Scheme”, “Single Elderly Persons Priority Scheme” and “Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme”. Eligible applications under individual priority schemes will generally be processed earlier than applications by ordinary families. For example, eligible applications under the “Harmonious Families Priority Scheme” and “Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme” will be processed earlier by six months and one year respectively, and will be assigned a G-number Equivalent Date. Details on the above-mentioned schemes and arrangement are set out at Annex.
(2) The progress of PRH allocation depends on various factors, including the applicants’ choice of district, the number of applications with same family size in individual districts, the supply of new and refurbished PRH flats in individual districts, the acceptance of flat offers by other applicants of higher priorities, the change of family particulars during the waiting period, etc. Therefore, the waiting time of applicants in individual districts may vary. For individual applicants, the latest allocation status of PRH applications in various districts can better enable them to estimate the waiting time required for them to be housed. In this regard, the Housing Department (HD) would publish in newspapers the latest allocation status of each district on a monthly basis, and would upload relevant information to the HA’s/HD’s website (www.housingauthority.gov.hk/en/flat-application/allocation-status/index.html
Moreover, general applicants can make reference to the future supply of PRH in different districts so as to estimate their waiting time. To this end, the Housing Bureau (HB) would update and publish the public housing production forecast for the next five years, and would upload the relevant public housing project information (including name of project, location, estimated number of flats, completion year, etc.) to the HB’s website (www.hb.gov.hk/eng/publications/housing/public/phpf/index.html
(3) The HA has enhanced the allocation mechanism since September 2023 by taking into account an applicant’s place of residence when allocating flats based on his/her choice of district. In processing individual application under the enhanced allocation mechanism, the computer system will allocate a PRH flat which is near to the applicant’s place of residence to the applicant, subject to the availability of public housing resources in the applicant’s chosen district, in order to increase the applicant’s chance of accepting the allocated PRH flat nearer to his/her current place of residence. Following the system enhancement, the proportion of applicants who are allocated with flats near their place of residence has increased by about 10 per cent, and the acceptance rate has increased by about 5 per cent accordingly.
Eligible applicants are entitled to three housing offers (one at a time). If applicants have special requests for PRH allocation (such as wishing to be accommodated to a specific area or a specific type of PRH flat in their choice of district) and have obtained the recommendation from government departments or organisations concerned (such as the Social Welfare Department or the Hospital Authority) supporting their special requests, the HD will, having regard to the applicants’ individual circumstances and subject to the availability of resources, arrange allocation of PRH flats to the applicants according to the area or type of flat recommended as far as practicable. If the applicant can furnish sufficient reasons that are acceptable by the HD for refusing the housing offer, the HD will arrange an extra flat offer for him/her according to his/her special need.
(4) In view of the supply and demand situation as well as the distribution of PRH flats, the HA had, on several occasions, reviewed and regrouped the geographical districts to speed up the allocation of suitable flats to applicants. Due to the different number of flats supply and distribution in all geographical districts, the choices available for applicants in different district may vary. Therefore, the smaller the district boundary, the chance for successful flat allocation will be lower. In order to improve the situation, the HA consolidated the number of PRH districts from fourteen to eight in 1993. This could expedite the allocation process and enable early allocation of suitable flats to applicants.
In tandem with urban development, the number of public transportation facilities connecting various districts is increasing, which greatly shortens the travelling time between districts. The HA further reduced the number of PRH districts from eight to four in 1998 in order to speed up the allocation work even more flexibly and further expedite the PRH allocation. The prevailing arrangement with four districts allows a more even distribution of supply of flats in each district and more effective allocation work. In fact, the Average Waiting Time (AWT) of general applications as at March 1998 was 6.6 years. Upon consolidating the PRH districts to four districts by the HA, and coupled with the increased supply of PRH, the AWT gradually reduced to around two years in 2000, proven that it is a good arrangement for consolidating the districts.
(5) Comparing with the 1990s, the infrastructure and transportation facilities in Tung Chung are well-developed today. The public transport links between districts are also very convenient. Reservation of some newly completed PRH flats in Tung Chung for special allocation arrangements would be unfair to other applicants who are waiting for allocation.
(6) Among the general applicants who were allocated PRH flats in the past three years (i.e. from 2022-23 to 2024-25), around 43 per cent of the applicants accepted the first offer, while around 27 per cent and 30 per cent of the applicants accepted the second and third offer respectively. If a flat is not accepted by an applicant, we will immediately allocate it to another applicant.
(7) Putting into consideration that each applicant has different housing needs for PRH flats, the HA will provide up to three housing offers to eligible applicants. Applicants can decide whether to accept the offers in accordance with their individual preferences and circumstances. Applicants may refuse to accept the housing offer for different reasons (not limited to a single reason). The HA does not maintain relevant statistical information.
Note: The HA will issue a registration date to the applicant upon registration of a PRH application. As the registration date cannot be changed, the HA will issue an adjusted registration date (i.e. G-number Equivalent Date) reflecting the adjusted waiting time due to implementation of PRH allocation policies (e.g. waiting time credit of one year will be given for “Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme”, waiting time will be frozen for one year if all members included in the application are currently living in PRH, etc). If there is a G-number equivalent date in the application, that date will be taken as the basis for future flat allocation and implementation of PRH application policies. When a G-number Equivalent Date is issued, the applicant will, at the same time, be issued with a corresponding range of application numbers which may be used as a reference for enquiring about the PRH application status.