Housing wait hits 23-year high

The average waiting time for public housing is at a 23-year high of 6.1 years, with 245,000 families waiting in the queue.

That's according to the Housing Authority's latest statistics at the end of March, which is a rise from the six-year wait at the end of December that was already double the government's target of three years.

And that came even though the 245,200 applications for rental housing in March is down around 3,300 applications compared to December numbers.

Of the applications, 147,500 were general ones, which is 4,500 less, while the other 97,700 were from non-elderly singletons - 1,200 applications more.

The authority said the increase in average waiting time was due to people moving into several large-scale public rental estate projects in the first quarter, including Queens Hill Estate in Fan Ling and Hoi Tat and Pak Tin estates in Sham Shui Po.

According to its calculation, the waiting time for applicants is calculated into the average waiting time after they are assigned a public rental housing flat.

"The intake at the three estates has allowed many applicants who have waited for a long time to be assigned a public rental housing flat, and their waiting time is therefore calculated into the latest average waiting time for public rental housing," the authority said.

Federation of Public Housing Estates executive director Anthony Chiu Kwok-wai said the increase in average waiting time is "well within expectations" and the number of applications remains high at 240,000.

Chiu expects the average waiting time to continue to increase in the next one to two quarters, and it will depend on how Chief Executive-elect John Lee Ka-chiu expedites the process of building homes.

"Or else, we will have to wait till as soon as 2027 before the average waiting time will start going down once again according to the government's Long Term Housing Strategy report," he added.

The Democratic Party's spokesman for housing policies, Mok Kin-shing, said the current administration has failed to solve housing problems at the grassroots level, and has disappointed the public.

"I am worried that the average waiting time will get worse with less public rental housing construction being completed in the next few years," Mok said. "Therefore we call on the government to speed up transitional housing and reclaim brownfield sites in the New Territories."

Ryan Ip Man-ki, Our Hong Kong Foundation's head of land and housing research, said the waiting time is "not ideal" but it still has yet to hit a peak.

"The completion of public rental housing has been lagging behind the long-term goal," Ip said.