Public Flats Queue Shrinks, But Waits Get Longer

Waiting times for public flats in Hong Kong have got longer, the Housing Authority said on Friday, even though the number of people in the queue has actually fallen.

Figures for the end of March showed general applicants were facing average waits of 5.1 years to be offered a flat, up from 4.7 years at the end of 2017. The government's target is three years.

Single, elderly people, meanwhile, were waiting around 2.8 years, up from 2.6 years.

The longer waits for a public flat come despite a fall of around 1,800 people in the queue as of the end of March, to 153,300.

These figures don't include the 119,000 non-elderly one-person applications under the separate Quota and Points System.

Democratic Party lawmaker and Housing Authority member Andrew Wan said the lengthening waiting times are disheartening, but not a surprise.

"Honestly, I feel disappointed. But it seems that that result is expected because we see that the public housing supply is not enough for many years. In the past 10 years we have a big gap in the supply and the shortage is not tackled by the government."

Wan told RTHK's Jimmy Choi that as a short-term measure, the government should take back the golf courses in Hong Kong to build flats there.