Hong Kong to conduct checks on public housing applicants for mainland property ownership

Hong Kong authorities are planning to conduct spot checks on public housing applicants to ensure they do not own mainland Chinese properties, according to the city’s housing director, who also warned young people against eyeing rental homes to “lie flat”.

Housing director Rosanna Law Shuk-pui revealed the measure on Friday, part of the government’s ongoing drive to crack down on well-off residents who abused the system.

Law said the administration would communicate with its mainland counterparts to figure out easier ways for the local government to access the property information of public rental housing tenants.

Under the current system, authorities in Hong Kong must file requests with individual departments on the mainland to check whether residents held any assets across the border.

The government stepped up regulations targeting well-off public housing tenants last October after Kwong Kau, 66, the former father-in-law of slain model Abby Choi Tin-fung, was found to have owned a luxury home while buying a subsidised flat.

Under the revised rules, all tenants now have to make income and asset declarations every two years. Previously, only those having lived there for a decade had to do so.

Law said the government had repossessed about 700 public rental flats between April and June this year from tenants who failed to properly declare their property ownership.