Following is a question by the Hon Andrew Wan and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Frank Chan Fan, in the Legislative Council today (May 6):
Question:
Under the policy of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), general applicants (i.e. family and elderly one-person applicants) are accorded priority over non-elderly one-person applicants in the allocation of public rental housing (PRH) flats. To this end, HA has implemented the Quota and Points System for non-elderly one-person applicants since September 2005. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective annual numbers of new (i) non-elderly one-person applicants and (ii) general applicants, as well as the respective year-end numbers of these two types of applicants, in the past five financial years;
(2) of (i) a breakdown of the number of non-elderly one-person applicants as at March 31, 2020 by the groups of elapsed time while waiting for PRH (ETW) (counting from the registration date) as set out in Table 1, and (ii) the corresponding percentages (set out the above information in Table 1); and
Table 1
| ETW | Number | Percentage |
| Less than 1 year | ||
| 1 to less than 3 years | ||
| 3 to less than 5 years | ||
| 5 to less than 10 years | ||
| 10 years or above | ||
| Total | 100% |
(3) of the PRH allocation quota for non-elderly one-person applicants under the Quota and Points System, and (i) in respect of each of the age groups set out in Table 2 and (ii) in overall term, the numbers of such applicants who were allocated PRH flats and their average waiting time (AWT), in each of the past five financial years (set out the above information in Table 2)?
Table 2
| 2015-2016 | … | 2019-2020 | ||||
| Allocation quota | … | |||||
| Age group | Number of applicants |
AWT | … | … | Number of applicants |
AWT |
| Below 30 | ||||||
| 30 to 39 | ||||||
| 40 to 49 | ||||||
| 50 or above | ||||||
| Overall | ||||||
Reply:
President,
The objective of the Government and the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is to provide public rental housing (PRH) to low-income families who cannot afford private rental accommodation, with the target of providing the first flat offer to general applicants (i.e. family and elderly one-person applicants) at around three years on average.
The Quota and Points System (QPS) was introduced in September 2005 for rationalising and re-prioritising the allocation of PRH to non-elderly one-person applicants. Unlike general applicants, the priority of flat allocation to the QPS applicants is determined by the total points accumulated by individual applicants under the points system. The points are based on the applicants' age, their waiting time and whether they are already residing in PRH. In October 2014, HA endorsed refining the QPS. Such refinements included increasing the age points per year of age increase at the time of application from three to nine points to reduce the incentive for early registration; and awarding a one-off bonus of 60 points to applicants when they have reached the age of 45 to accord them with higher priority over other younger applicants. The average waiting time target of around three years is not applicable to the non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS.
My response to the question raised by the Hon Andrew Wan is as follows:
(1) For general applicants and non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS from 2014-15 to 2018-19 (note 1), the number of new registration in the respective year and the number of applications as at end of the year (i.e. March 31) are set out in the following table:
| Year | General applicants | Non-elderly one-person applicants under QPS | ||
| Number of new registration | Number as at end of year | Number of new registration | Number as at end of year | |
| 2014-15 | 26 500 | 137 900 | 22 100 | 140 600 |
| 2015-16 | 23 700 | 150 500 | 16 100 | 134 300 |
| 2016-17 | 20 500 | 147 300 | 10 800 | 128 600 |
| 2017-18 | 21 000 | 153 300 | 10 600 | 119 000 |
| 2018-19 | 20 000 | 146 300 | 9 800 | 108 300 |
(2) and (3) From 2014-15 to 2018-19 (note 1), the annual quota for and the number of PRH allocation to non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS are presented in the following table:
| Year | Non-elderly one-person applicants under QPS |
|
| Annual quota | Number of PRH allocation |
|
| 2014-15 | 1 360 | 1 266 |
| 2015-16 | 2 200 | 1 623 (note 2) |
| 2016-17 | 2 200 | 2 145 |
| 2017-18 | 1 803 | 1 409 (note 2) |
| 2018-19 | 2 200 | 2 190 |
As mentioned above, unlike general applicants, the priority of flat allocation to the QPS applicants is determined by the total points accumulated by individual applicants under the points system. The points are based on the applicants' age, their waiting time and whether they are already residing in PRH. The HA does not compile the average waiting time or the "elapsed time while waiting for PRH" counting from the registration date for non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS. Nor does the HA conduct age analysis on non-elderly one-person applicants who have been housed.
Note 1: Relevant data for 2019-20 are still being compiled.
Note 2: The actual number of PRH allocation in 2015-16 and 2017-18 was relatively lower than the annual quota in the respective year mainly because the completion dates of some newly built estates in the year were later than the original estimated dates. Hence, some of the flats which had already been accepted by applicants through advance allocation could not be counted towards the actual allocation of the respective year.
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