ENG-2020 — Page 223

Chapter 12

Housing

The government's policy objectives are to provide public rental housing for low-income families to meet their basic housing needs; provide subsidised sale flats to enhance the housing ladder; and maintain the healthy and steady development of the residential property market, giving priority to Hong Kong permanent residents' needs.

The Secretary for Transport and Housing oversees housing matters. He is also the Chairman of the Hong Kong Housing Authority and is supported by the Director of Housing.

The Housing Authority is a statutory body that develops and implements public housing programmes. Its vision is to provide affordable rental housing to low-income families with housing needs, and to provide subsidised sale flats (SSFs) to help low- to middle-income families achieve home ownership.

The Housing Department is the Housing Authority's executive arm, providing secretariat and executive support to the authority and its committees. As the Transport and Housing Bureau's housing arm, it also monitors the private residential property market, facilitates home buyers' access to full and accurate information and oversees policy for the regulation of estate agents.

Hong Kong had about 2,904,800 flats at year end, comprising about 842,200 public rental units', 427,500 SSFs2 and 1,634,900 private-sector flats. About 30 per cent and 15 per cent of the population lived in public rental units and SSFs respectively. The Housing Authority's revised estimate for housing expenditure in 2019-20 was about $30 billion, or 4.7 per cent of public expenditure.

Long Term Housing Strategy

The government's Long Term Housing Strategy (LTHS) is 'supply-led' and 'flexible' to address the imbalance between housing supply and demand.

1

Comprising public rental housing and interim housing flats under the Housing Authority and rental flats under the Hong Kong Housing Society.

2

Excluding 322 flats provided by the Urban Renewal Authority on a one-off basis in 2015-16.

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