Man seeks judicial review of public flat system that 'gives false hope'

A 35-year-old granted legal aid to seek a judicial review of the government's "unfair" points system for public-flat applications said yesterday he was pursuing the case because the government is offering false hope to younger, single applicants such as him.

"The government may as well tell non-elderly, single applicants not to apply because it is giving them false hope. The chance of obtaining a public flat is just too small," Cheung Chi-keung said.

Cheung applied for a flat in August 2005, a month before the government changed the system. Until then, all applicants joined the same queue for public flats.

Under the changes, quotas were set for non-elderly, single applicants such as Cheung, capped at 2,000 a year, and later rising to 2,200.

Other applicants - including families and the elderly - were placed in a different queue for the remaining available flats, which number around 20,000 a year.

As of March this year, 140,600 people were waiting for a public flat in the non-elderly singles queue, with 137,900 in the queue for families and the elderly.

Cheung would have been allocated a flat in 2008 or 2009 under the old system, but is required to wait until 2016 or 2017 under the current one.