Public housing waiting time now 4.1 years as observers say government has failed to deliver
The Housing Authority says ‘the increase in supply cannot catch up with the substantial increase in demand’; obstacles include bureaucracy and public opposition
Families need to wait an average of four years to get into public housing, despite government efforts to build more homes and shorten waiting time to three years, according to latest figures released by the Housing Authority.
The data comes at a time when the increasing backlog of applications for public housing, coupled with the struggle to find land, pose a major challenge for the government.
According to the figures, the average wait for family applicants increased from 3.9 years in March to 4.1 by the end of June. Single senior citizens face an average wait of 2.4 years.
The wait of 4.1 years broke a 13-year streak of waiting time under four years. The longest waiting time was 6.5 years in 2002 when Tung Chee-hwa was chief executive.
The total number of applications, including families, single and elderly people went up by 3,800 to 288,300 in the three months. The number of general applicants – families and elderly people – accounted for a little over half of all applicants, while the number of single applicants was about 135,000.