'Wait For Public Flats To Improve 5 Years Later'

Housing Secretary Frank Chan says he expects the years-long queue for households waiting for public housing flats to start showing improvements from 2027.

Applicants currently have to wait an average 5.8 years for a public estate flat.

But in a blog post published on Saturday, Chan wrote that the government's efforts to find land over the past few years had started to yield results.

Chan said some 350 hectares of the land found so far would be enough for about 330,000 new public housing units in the upcoming 10 years.

He pointed out that about a third of these new subsidised rental flats would be completed from next year to 2027.

Together with units recovered from tenants who have moved out, Mr Chan estimated that about 54,000 public estate flats would be available annually between 2027 and 2032.