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HOUSING

Better-off Tenants

Better-off tenants are required to pay higher rents, up to double the amount of normal rent. In 2000, the subsidy saved through charging this additional rent amounted to $161.5 million. Some 2 553 better-off tenants, including 1751 households which acquired their own flats under the HOS, PSPS or HPLS, returned their public rental housing flats to the HKHA. Tenants who exceed both the income limit and the net asset limit, and double-rent paying households which choose not to declare their household assets are required to move out. Since February 1999, 1 233 households have surrendered flats to the HKHA under this policy.

Allocation

In 2000, 48 828 flats were allocated by the HKHA and the HKHS to various categories of applicant. Of these flats, 25 317 were new and 23 511 refurbished: 49.4 per cent were allocated to Waiting List applicants, 34.3 per cent to tenants affected by the HKHA's Comprehensive Redevelopment Programme, 2.8 per cent to families affected by clearances, 2.3 per cent to junior civil servants, and the remainder to victims of fire and natural disasters, occupants of huts and other structures at dangerous locations, and compassionate cases recommended by the Social Welfare Department.

Flats are allocated in accordance with the order of registration and applicants' choices of district. Applicants are required to satisfy comprehensive means tests (covering income and assets), a no-domestic-property rule and a residence. requirement before being admitted into public rental housing.

Redevelopment

Since the launching of the HKHA's Comprehensive Redevelopment Programme in 1988, 460 housing blocks have been redeveloped to improve the living conditions of some 147 400 households. In 2000, 56 blocks were cleared and 14 900 households rehoused. Over the next five years (2001-2005), another 106 old blocks will be redeveloped.

Housing for Groups in Special Need

The Elderly

There are two priority schemes for public rental flats which encourage households to live with and take care of their elderly members. Households with elderly parents or dependent relatives aged 60 or above, which apply under the Families with Elderly Persons Priority Scheme, are allocated flats three years before normal allocation in the district of their choice. Households with two elderly members, which apply under the Special Scheme for Families with Elderly Persons, are allocated two separate flats in the same block in a new town two years before normal allocation. Households with at least one elderly member also have their priority status upgraded for HOS, PSPS and HPLS applications.

An elderly person who prefers to live alone can apply under the Single Elderly Persons Priority Scheme and be allocated a public rental unit within three years. The Government has pledged to reduce the average waiting time of elderly singletons who wish to live by themselves to two years by 2005. Two or more elderly persons who are