ENG-2010 — Page 266

216 Housing

The Government's private housing policy is to ensure the property market's healthy and stable development. The Government also makes sure that sales of first- hand private residential properties are carried out with great transparency. It aims to supply enough land over the next 10 years for the building of about 20 000 private residential flats each year.

The Steering Committee on Housing Land Supply, chaired by the Financial Secretary, ensures a steady and adequate supply of land for the building of public and private flats, including small- to medium-sized units, by co-ordinating the work of the bureaux and departments.

Institutional Framework

The Secretary for Transport and Housing is responsible for housing matters and is also the HKHA's chairman. She is assisted by the Permanent Secretary for Transport and Housing (Housing), who heads the Housing Department as its director.

The Housing Department has both policy and operational responsibilities for providing public rental housing. It provides secretariat and executive support to the HKHA and its committees. The Transport and Housing Bureau's (THB) housing arm monitors developments in the private housing market, ensures home buyers have access to accurate, comprehensive and transparent property transaction information, and oversees policy matters relating to the regulation of estate agents.

Public Rental Housing

At present, about 2 071 200 people, or 30 per cent of Hong Kong's population, live in HKHA and the Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS)4 public rental housing estates. The estimated HKHA housing expenditure in 2010-11 is $16.1 billion, or approximately 5 per cent of public expenditure. At the end of December 2010, there were about 145 000 households on the HKHA's public rental housing waiting list. The average waiting time for general applicants on the waiting list rehoused in 2010 was two years.

Rent Policy

It is the HKHA's long-established policy to set public rental housing rents at affordable levels. Rents are inclusive of rates, management and maintenance costs, and ranged from $260 to $3 530 with the average monthly rent being $1,400 as at December 2010.

Under the new income-based rent adjustment mechanism, rents may be adjusted upwards or downwards according to changes in tenants' household income. The first public rental housing rent review conducted under the new mechanism took place in 2010. Subsequent reviews will be carried out every two years.

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The HKHS is an independent, not-for-profit organisation established in 1948. One of its major functions is to provide subsidised housing to specific target groups at affordable rents.