The Government published in the Gazette today (March 28) the Housing (Amendment) Bill 2025 to make amendments to the Housing Ordinance to combat tenancy abuse (TA) more effectively and thus ensure prudent use of public housing resources.
The Bill covers three main areas: (i) introducing new offences of serious TA of public rental housing (PRH) flats; (ii) empowering authorised officers to demand personal details from suspects; and (iii) extending the limitation of time for prosecution of offences of false statements, refusal to furnish information and unlawful alienations, in order to enhance the deterrent effect of measures in combating PRH abuse.
"Public housing is precious social resources that must be allocated to those in genuine need and utilised in a reasonable manner. Since assuming office, the current-term Government has implemented a series of measures to better combat tenancy abuse. In the two and a half years since July 2022, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) has recovered around 7 000 flats on the grounds of abuse or breaches of tenancy terms; the result is remarkable. The HA will continue to step up its efforts in combating PRH abuse to ensure that public housing resources are deployed to help those in greatest need," the spokesman of the Government said.
"We look forward to the early passage of the Bill by the Legislative Council. Under the proposal, the above three areas of legislative amendments will come into effect by the end of March next year. In the interim, we will continuously step up our publicity efforts to ensure that PRH tenants and members of the public understand the content of the series of new measures in stepping up efforts to combat PRH abuse," the spokesman added.
The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for first and second readings on April 2.
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