Call to help with rent, travel costs

Rent concessions and travel subsidies are two ways of encouraging people to move to less popular areas in the New Territories that will in turn ease a long wait for public rental flats, a leading housing adviser has suggested.

Stanley Wong Yuen-fai said he floated the ideas in an attempt to stimulate thinking on how to deal with the ever-growing list of flat applicants - at a 20-year high of 228,400 by the end of March.

"It is hard for our construction work to catch up with the growth in applicant numbers. We are facing a severe challenge in upholding our three-year pledge," Wong, chairman of the Housing Authority's subsidised housing committee, said yesterday.

He was referring to the government's promise of being able to offer an applicant the first unit within three years of application. The average waiting time is now 2.7 years, and officials are concerned the growing list may stretch out the wait further.

Wong pointed to a widespread tendency to reject the initial offer - which was highly likely to be a home in the New Territories - in the hope of striking it lucky with an urban flat later.

This mentality lengthens the waiting time and puts pressure on the three-year pledge.