Applications for a transitional housing scheme described by the government as a “breakthrough” initiative for addressing Hong Kong’s housing crisis will open later this month, authorities have said.
The Housing Bureau announced on Thursday that those who have been waiting for public rental flats for at least three years will be able to apply for the Light Public Housing (LPH) scheme from June 24. As of the end of March, the average waiting time for public rental housing in Hong Kong was 5.7 years.
Successful applicants will be allocated units in one of two projects under the scheme – one in Ngau Tau Kok in eastern Kowloon, and another in Yuen Long in the New Territories – which will begin taking tenants in the first quarter of 2025.
The units will be allocated based on a points system that considers applicants’ current living environment, the members in their household, and their health. Applicants who have been living in what the authorities deem “inadequate housing” for more than two years will have the highest chance of receiving an LPH offer.
Families with newborn babies will be prioritised, as will those with elderly people or minors in their households. Applicants with health problems that affect their daily lives will also be given priority.
The monthly rent will range from around HK$740 to HK$1,420, depending on the size of the unit. The Yuen Long project, on Yau Pok Road, provides units for one to two people and three to four people, while the Ngau Tau Kok project on Choi Hing Road also has larger units for four to five tenants.
Each unit will be equipped with a self-contained toilet, a shower area, an open cooking space, an electric water heater and an exhaust fan.
The price of rent in LPH is set at around 90 per cent of what it would cost to rent a newly completed public rental flat in the district.
30,000 new units by 2027
The LPH scheme was announced by Chief Executive John Lee in his maiden Policy Address as the city’s leader in 2022. Lee said the initiative was aimed at alleviating the city’s inadequate housing problem.
Tenants can live in LPH units for a fixed term of two years. The flats are prefabricated and similar in size and layout to traditional public housing units.
Around 30,000 housing units will be made available under the scheme. The Ngau Tau Kok and Yuen Long projects will be the first to be completed, offering a total of about 4,400 units. There are community service facilities and public transport services in their vicinity, the Housing Bureau said on Thursday.
Hong Kong’s housing market, known for its exorbitant prices, leaves few options for the city’s poor. Around 215,700 people live in subdivided flats.
NGOs have long called attention to the cramped living spaces and safety hazards in subdivided units, which are often carved out of flats in old tenement buildings.
See also: Hong Kong subdivided flats should be at least 100 square feet, surveyors’ group says
During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Hong Kong in July 2022, the leader called on the city to “earnestly address people’s concerns and difficulties in daily life,” in particular housing.
Besides the Ngau Tau Kok and Yuen Long projects, the LPH scheme also includes 11 other projects, among them housing in Chai Wan, Wong Tai Sin, Tuen Mun and Sheung Shui. The five smallest projects – each offering around 100 units – will be built on vacant school campuses.
The government estimates that all of the projects will be ready for move-in by the first quarter of 2027.
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