Fact of the Day: Public Housing Wait Gets Longer

The wait for public housing is now an average of 5.8 years

People waiting to be able to rent a public housing flat now have to wait 0.2 years longer at an average of 5.8 years, according to the Housing Authority.

Last year around 13,700 public rental flats were allocated, much fewer than the 26,400 in 2022. The Housing Authority said it was because there were fewer rental flats to allocate, the "lowest in recent years".

The government body explained it was due to construction delays, such as one accident in 2022 when a crane in Sau Mau Ping collapsed and killed three workers, causing other construction projects to be suspended for inspections.

Meanwhile, the average wait time for elderly one-person applications increased by 0.1 years to four years.

Nevertheless, the Housing Authority said more public housing flats were on the way in Tuen Mun, Tung Chung and the New Territories that would be completed in two years.

Dealing with the housing issue was among those mentioned by Chinese leader Xi Jinping when he visited Hong Kong in 2022.

"Currently, the biggest aspiration of Hong Kong people is to lead a better life, in which they will have more decent housing," Xi said at the time.

Interestingly the number of applicants for public housing has fallen in recent years, from 155,100 at the end of 2017 to 129,400 at the end of last year, and yet the wait has risen.