· 35 -
Rents for public housing determined by tenants' affordability
Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Mr Dominic Wong, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
The Housing Authority proposes that rents for new and existing public housing estates in the next decade will be fixed at a level tenants can afford. Rents for housing flats are fixed so that the median rent-income ratio should be 15 percent for a minimum allocation standard of 5.5 square metres of internal floor area per person; and 18.5 percent for seven square metres per person. In this connection:
(a)
(b)
Answer:
Mr President,
does the Government know of the criteria adopted in determining the above percentages; and
will the authorities illustrate, in accordance with the criteria mentioned in the answer to (a) above and with different allocation standards of internal floor area for units in old and new public housing estates, how the rents in each case will increase progressively towards the proposed percentages, together with the amounts of rent increases of public housing in the next ten years?
Rents for public housing are determined on the basis of tenants' ability to pay. Other factors, including the relative value of the estates concerned, rates and operating costs, are also taken into account. In any event, the median rent to income ratio for the concerned estates should not exceed 15% or 18.5% for the relevant space allocation standards. These percentages have regard both to local patterns of expenditure on housing and to international trends.
In the Long Term Housing Strategy Review Consultative Document released recently, we have proposed that public housing rents should be increased gradually to achieve these ratios by 2006, and that the Housing Authority should be asked to draw up specific measures to achieve this aim. It is not possible at present to give details of proposed rent increases at this stage, but clearly it will be necessary for average rents to increase in real terms in order to achieve the median rent-to-income ratio targets.
End
Page 50Page 51