'Smaller Families To Blame For Housing Shortfall'

The transport and housing minister, Frank Chan, said it has become harder to meet society's demand for public rental flats as each unit now houses fewer residents on average.

Writing in his blog, Chan noted that an average of three persons lived in a government's rental flat in 2006, but the number dropped to 2.7 last year, which means fewer people can benefit by building such flats.

He said the authorities will try and increase the supply of public housing by enhancing the development potential of land and fully utilising the plot ratio.

The executive director of the Federation of Public Housing Estates, Anthony Chiu, urged the administration to implement policies to promote cross-generational co-living, saying that will maximise the use of government resources.

However, Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Wan, who’s also a member of the Housing Authority, slammed the housing chief for coming up with “excuses” to justify the government’s failure to build enough public housing.