Hong Kong’s Housing Authority to boost subsidised flats size, relax resale rules

Hong Kong’s Housing Authority plans to enhance the city’s upward mobility by increasing the size of subsidised flats by 10 per cent after five years and aiming for a quarter of its new supply to feature two-bedroom units in the future.

Cleresa Wong Pie-yue, chairwoman of the authority’s subsidised housing committee, said on Thursday that the measures would be introduced following the approval from advisers, who endorsed reducing the resale restriction period for owners to sell their subsidised homes in the open market from 15 years to 10.

The authority, the city’s major public housing provider, would consider offering larger subsidised flats when housing supply became relatively sufficient and the waiting time for public rental housing became shorter, she said.

“At present, the waiting time for public rental housing is relatively long,” she said, referring to the latest average waiting period of 5.4 years for family and elderly applicants.

“According to our plan, after the next five years, as the supply of public rental housing increases and applicants do not need to wait as long, we hope we can increase the flat size by 10 per cent in general.”

She added that the authority also aimed to increase the proportion of two-room subsidised flats from the current 20 per cent to 25 per cent in the future.