Hong Kong leader announces measures to address housing crisis in annual policy address

Hong Kong chief govt John Lee introduced strikes aimed toward addressing the town’s housing affordability disaster, calling it “a difficulty of nice public concern” in an annual coverage tackle on Wednesday. 

One keynote coverage introduced in his speech will look to supply a better path to sponsored housing for residents below the age of 40 amid mounting issues about their capability to get a foothold within the metropolis’s crowded housing market.

Beneath the plan, the Hong Kong Housing Authority will allocate an additional poll quantity to candidates aged beneath 40 — a transfer that can enhance their probabilities of being chosen for the town’s sponsored House Possession Scheme flats.

The federal government will even enhance its quota for the “White Kind Secondary Market Scheme”— below which secondhand sponsored flats may be purchased and offered with no land premium — by 1,500, all of that are reserved for candidates below 40. Solely 4,500 households have been eligible for studios below the scheme in 2023.

The transfer comes amid studies and fears that younger Hong Kongers within the metropolis could decline promotions and pay raises for the aim of remaining eligible for public housing reasonably than enter the non-public market.

To additional tackle youth housing affordability, the federal government will proceed its Youth Hostel Scheme, which subsidizes non-governmental organizations’ renting of inns and guesthouses to be used as youth hostels.

The 2024 Demographia Worldwide Housing Affordability report ranked the town because the least inexpensive place to discover a residence for over a decade. Town’s over 100,000 “shoe-box sized” subdivided flats, which have been linked to issues with well being and security, are sometimes used to drive residence this reality. 

Lee stated on Wednesday that the town would launch a brand new system for renting subdivided flats, with “substandard” models to be transformed into “Fundamental Housing Items” that meet new necessities similar to home windows, bathrooms and a dimension bigger than 86 sq. toes. 

He additionally stated the federal government expects to finish about 9,500 new public housing models subsequent 12 months, transferring towards a objective of finishing about 30,000 models by 2027-2028.

The present wait time for a public housing unit in Hong Kong is 5.5 years. In line with Lee, the wait time could possibly be shortened to 4.5 years in 2026-2027.

The coverage tackle on Wednesday was Lee’s third in his five-year time period, and it had extra concentrate on enhancing residents’ livelihoods and strengthening the town’s financial system than earlier than.

Prior addresses had been extra centered on problems with nationwide safety and post-pandemic restoration measures, with Lee taking on the town after a interval of civil unrest that led into the Covid-19 pandemic.