Clear housing objective set

2019-10-17 09:31:14

(To watch the video with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Government is setting a clear objective that every Hong Kong citizen will no longer have to be troubled by the housing problem, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said.

Delivering her Policy Address today, Mrs Lam said the Government?s significant efforts to adjust the housing policy in the past may not have eased the minds of the general public.

Mrs Lam said: ?I hereby set a clear objective that every Hong Kong citizen and his family will no longer have to be troubled by or pre-occupied with the housing problem, and that they will be able to have their own home in Hong Kong, a city in which we all have a share.?

She introduced short and medium-term housing support measures including the substantial increase in the number of transitional housing projects to provide 10,000 of such units within the next three years to relieve the pressure of families living in unpleasant conditions and those who have been waiting for public rental housing for a long time.

Mrs Lam said the provision set aside for transitional housing will increase to $5 billion from the $2 billion announced earlier.

The Government will offer relief for low-income households not living in public rental housing and not receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance by providing a cash allowance, she said.

As it takes time to devise a scheme to provide the cash allowance on a regular basis, Mrs Lam said she will invite the Community Care Fund to launch two rounds of the one-off living subsidy for such low income households in the next financial year to allow the Government time to complete the relevant study by the end of 2020.

Additionally, Mrs Lam will invite the Housing Authority to explore the feasibility of redeveloping its factory estates for public housing use.

The Chief Executive said she will entrust the Urban Renewal Authority with a new mission to actively provide more starter homes and subsidised sale flats in its redevelopment projects.

To help first-time home buyers, Mrs Lam said the Government will raise the cap on the value of properties under the Mortgage Insurance Programme of the Mortgage Corporation Insurance Limited.

The cap on the value of properties eligible for a mortgage loan of maximum cover of 90% loan-to-value ratio will be raised from $4 million to $8 million for first-time home buyers.

Mrs Lam noted that views for a relaunch of the Tenants Purchase Scheme and the redevelopment of aged public rental housing estates were brought up during Policy Address consultation sessions in recent months.

?I have no in-principle objection to these two proposals which can meet the home ownership aspirations of public rental housing tenants, improve their living conditions and increase housing supply through redevelopment.

?Yet, their implementation will reduce the number of public rental housing units available for allocation in the short term, which will inevitably lengthen the waiting time for public rental housing applicant families.

?Given the current acute short supply of public rental housing units and the need to deploy housing resources in an effective manner, it is difficult to implement these proposals for the time being.?

Mrs Lam said she will ask the Housing Authority to look into the matter when there is more certainty on the overall public housing supply.

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