The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
 
     The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA)'s Subsidised Housing Committee (SHC) today (March 17) discussed the outcome of the review of income and asset limits for public rental housing (PRH) for 2023/24, and endorsed the proposed income and asset limits for applicants of different household sizes, which will take effect from April 1, 2023 (see table).
 
     "The PRH income and asset limits are reviewed annually according to the established mechanism. If an adjustment is to be made strictly in accordance with the established formula, the PRH income limits for 2023/24 for households with six persons and above will be adjusted upwards, while those for one-person to five-person households will be adjusted downwards," a spokesman for the HA said.
 
     "As the local economy is gradually recovering from the impacts brought about by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, and the livelihood of low-income families, which are target groups of PRH, is still being seriously affected, the SHC considered that exceptional treatment continued to be justified in setting the 2023/24 PRH income limits. With reference to past practice, the SHC endorsed freezing the income limits for one-person to five-person households at the existing (2022/23) levels, while adjusting upwards the income limits for households with six persons and above in accordance with the established methodology. In addition, the SHC also endorsed adjusting the PRH asset limits upwards 1.9 per cent for all household sizes in accordance with the established mechanism," the spokesman said.
 
     Under the established mechanism, PRH income limits are derived using a household expenditure approach, which consists of housing costs and non-housing costs, plus a 5 per cent contingency provision. Housing costs, which measure the costs of renting a private flat comparable to PRH, depend on the differential unit rents of private accommodation per square metre and reference flat sizes (i.e. average space of flats allocated to PRH applicants in the past three years). Non-housing costs are determined with reference to the results of the latest Household Expenditure Survey conducted by the Census and Statistics Department, and adjusted in the intervening years by the latest movements in the Consumer Price Index (CPI)(A) (excluding housing costs), or the change in the nominal wage index as the income factor, whichever is higher. As regards the PRH asset limits, they are adjusted with reference to movements in CPI(A) over the year.

Ends/Friday, March 17, 2023
Issued at HKT 16:00

NNNN