Hong Kong public housing tenants to be asked to share personal data for checks on property ownership as efforts to weed out abuses ramped up

All Hong Kong public housing tenants will be asked to give authorities permission to check personal data held by government departments and banks for property ownership information, with a compulsory asset declaration system to be extended to weed out abuses.

Permanent Secretary for Housing Rosanna Law Shuk-pui revealed the move to expand the authorities’ power on Thursday and said forms had been sent out to the first batch of more than 88,000 households asking them to declare they lived in their flats and did not own property in Hong Kong.

She said the forms would also require tenants to give housing authorities their consent to their personal data being shared with other departments for verification purposes. They must return the forms by the end of next month.

“This declaration form gives us the authority to share data with the relevant departments to verify the information,” Law said.

The personal data includes names, Hong Kong identity card numbers, contact numbers and property ownership information.