Hong Kong housing authorities find enough land to provide 21,000 transitional flats by early 2025

Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho says government’s years-long push to alleviate conditions of those waiting for public flats is starting to pay off

‘We are entering into the harvest season this year for the Housing Bureau’s efforts to push transitional housing projects,’ minister adds

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Residents view mock-ups of transitional housing to be offered to those living in subdivided flats. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Published: 5:17pm, 4 May 2024Updated: 7:19pm, 4 May 2024

Hong Kong housing authorities have identified enough land to meet their construction target of about 21,000 transitional flats by early next year, a minister has said.

Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin said on Saturday the government’s push over the last two years to provide more transitional homes had started to pay off.

“We are entering the harvest season this year for the Housing Bureau’s efforts to push transitional housing projects,” she said. “We’ve identified sufficient land to build about 21,000 flats, of which 13,600 are already in operation.

“This year, we will roll out more than 6,000 flats, and by early next year we will launch the remaining 1,200 flats to complete our target.”

The use of transitional housing is part of government efforts to provide short-term accommodation to people waiting to be allocated public flats.

Authorities have said they aimed to complete 84 transitional housing projects by 2024-25, with more than half of the promised flats to be in the New Territories.

Ho said it was affirming to see subdivided housing tenants move into transitional flats.