The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:

     The Subsidised Housing Committee of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) today (June 13) approved the estimated public rental housing (PRH) allocation for 2024-25 and noted the actual allocation in 2023-24.

     "For the year 2023-24, the actual allocation was 23 598 flats (i.e. the number of flats taken up by applicants before the end of 2023-24), representing 97.9 per cent of the original estimate. As individual projects undertaken by Aggressive Construction Company Limited were not completed as scheduled, the number of newly completed flats was 4 500 less than the original estimate. As a result of the Housing Department's continuous efforts in taking enhanced measures to combat abuse of public housing resources, together with the intake of new subsidised sale flats, the number of recovered flats was about 4 100 more than the original estimate of 15 600," a spokesman for the HA said.

     "For 2024-25, we estimated that a total of about 30 200 PRH flats, comprising about 11 100 new flats and about 19 100 recovered flats, will be available for allocation to various categories of applicants. Most of the flats (i.e. 23 300 flats (77.2 per cent)) will be allocated to PRH applicants. The annual allocation quota for non-elderly one-person applicants under the Quota and Points System (QPS) is set at 10 per cent of the total number of flats to be allocated to PRH applicants with an upper limit of 2 200 flats, and therefore the allocation quota for QPS applicants in 2024-25 is 2 200 flats," the spokesman said.

     As regards allocation for other categories of applicants, the HA will reserve 1 200 flats for rehousing residents affected by clearance projects planned by various departments, and residents affected by other Government's squatter clearances, emergency clearances, unauthorised rooftop structure clearances and so forth. Moreover, 300 flats will also be set aside for rehousing residents affected by the Urban Renewal Authority's redevelopment projects scheduled for 2024-25.

      In addition, 700 flats will be reserved for allocation under the category of Compassionate Rehousing (CR). This figure is not an upper limit and the HA will follow the established policy to handle all the demands for CR as recommended by the Social Welfare Department. Any unused flats reserved under the category of CR will be allocated to PRH applicants.

      Under the category of Transfers, 3 700 flats will be used for various transfer purposes in 2024-25, among which 1 100 flats will be used for the transfer of under-occupation households so that more large flats can be recovered for easing the pressing demand of applicants with four or more household members. Moeover, as with last year, the HA will reserve a quota of around 1 000 for the Transfer Scheme for Improving the Living Environment in 2024-25. The remaining 1 600 flats will be flexibly deployed for other transfer purposes including Special Transfer, the Harmonious Families Transfer Scheme, the Full Rent Exemption Scheme for Elderly Households, Management Transfer, etc.

      For the category of Junior Civil Servants and Pensioners, as in 2023-24, the HA will reserve 1 000 flats under the Civil Service Public Housing Quota Scheme in 2024-25.

     "The HA will make projections of the supply of PRH flats that can be allocated in the coming year and how such flats may be allocated to the various categories of demands. We will closely monitor any changes in the circumstances and will maintain flexibility in the allocation of PRH flats to optimise the use of resources," the spokesman added.

     (Please refer to the attached table on the breakdown of estimated allocations for various categories in 2024-25.)

Ends/Thursday, June 13, 2024
Issued at HKT 16:00

NNNN