A high-level housing committee will meet today to discuss ways to allow middle-aged single applicants for public rental flats to get them quicker.
There were 35,000 "non-elderly" singles - people aged over 35 but below 60 - among the 220,000 applicants on the waiting list in December.
Typically low-wage workers living in subdivided flats, they are considered to have urgent housing needs. But they have to wait longer than family applicants and those older than 60 who have been given a pledge by the Housing Authority that they will receive housing within two to three years of applying.
In today's meeting, the Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee will decide whether to extend the pledge to cover the non-elderly singles.
"Given the tight supply of new public housing units, the suggestion is to extend the pledge in phases, so that the older people, say those over 55, will get housing first, and it will come down to 50 and then 40," a person familiar with the committee's work said.
The committee will also discuss whether to set a lower income limit for Home Ownership Scheme flats for sale. It was found earlier that some young applicants for the subsidised flats reported they had no income, creating concerns whether they could afford to pay the mortgage.
Meanwhile, a telephone survey by Chinese University found that 95 per cent of the 753 people interviewed said property prices were too high. This was up five percentage points from the last poll in August last year.