But the authority said the duration would “fluctuate in the short term” due to factors such as the availability of homes, the number of applicants and their district preferences.

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“The waiting time for [flats] in the New Territories is generally shorter than those in [urban areas by] a few months to over a year,’ the statement said.

“Given that a substantial number of flats in the New Territories were available for allocation in the past few quarters, when [applicants were allocated] public rental housing in the New Territories, their waiting time was counted towards the average waiting time, resulting in a reduction,” the statement read.

The figure increased when more flats in urban areas were allocated to applicants who had waited for a long time, the authority added.

The data also showed the average waiting time for individual elderly applicants had remained at 3.9 years for a year.

The authority said 2,300 general applicants were allocated a flat during the second quarter, including 510 elderly residents.

As of June, the city was processing about 133,100 general requests, which generally cover families and elderly residents, as well as 96,900 from those aged 58 and below at the time of applying.

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Scott Leung Man-kwong, deputy chairman of the legislature’s housing panel, said he expected the waiting time to maintain a downward trend for the third quarter as around 6,800 flats in Tai Po were ready to be allocated.

But he said he hoped the administration could reveal more details on a scheme it proposed last October, which aimed to speed up the allocation of 12,000 public flats by three to 18 months in the coming five years.

“It has been almost a year … I also hope the government can include more public housing projects under the scheme, such as those in new development areas, to shorten the waiting time,” Leung said.

06:43

More Than a Story: More Than Just a Housing Crisis | South China Morning Post

More Than a Story: More Than Just a Housing Crisis | South China Morning Post

Xia Baolong, Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong affairs, two years ago called on local authorities to resolve the housing crisis by 2049 and noted many residents continued to live in substandard subdivided flats.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also called for authorities to build larger living spaces for residents as he laid out his expectations last July at Lee’s inauguration.

The government has identified 350 hectares (864 acres) of land to build 330,000 public flats in the coming decade, but only one-third of the homes are expected to be ready between the 2023-24 and 2027-28 financial years.

Lee also devoted part of his maiden policy address last October to introducing “light public housing”, a scheme that offers government-built temporary homes to families who have waited for three or more years to move into a standard public flat.

Wait for Hong Kong public housing drops to 5.3 years as more flats become available

The city leader introduced a new index charting the “composite wait time”, which covers the duration spent waiting for a temporary flat.

The index currently stands at 5.3 years before moving into permanent public flats, since all light housing units are still under construction. The first batch of 2,100 is expected to be ready by 2024-25.

A total of 30,000 temporary living spaces spanning eight projects are set to be completed by 2027-28, with authorities aiming to cut the composite wait time to 4.5 years by 2026-27.