Number of Applications and Average Waiting Time for Public Rental Housing

The Housing Authority’s objective is to provide public rental housing to low-income families who cannot afford private rental accommodation, and to maintain the target of providing first flat offer to general applicants (i.e. family and elderly one-person applicants) at around three years on average. The average waiting time* target of around three years is not applicable to non-elderly one-person applicants under the Quota and Points System. As at end-December 2014, there were about 133 700 general applications for public rental housing, and about 137 300 non-elderly one-person applications under the Quota and Points System. The average waiting time for general applicants was 3.2 years. Among them, the average waiting time for elderly one-person applicants was 1.7 years.

*Waiting time refers to the time taken between registration for public rental housing and first flat offer, excluding any frozen period during the application period (e.g. when the applicant has not yet fulfilled the residence requirement; the applicant has requested to put his/her application on hold pending arrival of family members for family reunion; the applicant is imprisoned, etc). The average waiting time for general applicants refers to the average of the waiting time of those general applicants who were housed to public rental housing in the past 12 months.