The Legislative Council on November 12 rejected a non-binding motion on public-housing policy, along with two amendments offering different approaches. It was the first time in the current term that an original motion and both amendments had all been rejected.
Proposed by Leung Man-kwong, the motion called for studying a scheme that would set aside higher-income tenants’ extra rent for up to five years, to help them buy subsidised-sale housing. It also called for considering the resumption of public rental-home sales after shortcomings in the existing scheme had been addressed.
Chan Hok Fung proposed removing the savings-scheme wording. He argued that it would benefit only about 40,000 to 50,000 higher-income households, rather than helping public-housing residents more broadly. His amendment also proposed studying a longer-term rent-to-buy subsidy model.
Lam Wai Kong’s amendment would make any cautious return to sales conditional on first meeting a three-year public-housing waiting-time target. He warned that restarting sales too soon could reduce the homes available to households on the waiting list.
Deputy Financial Secretary and acting Housing Bureau chief Michael Wong Wai-lun said the government had no current plan to direct how tenants save. He questioned whether setting aside higher-income tenants’ rent would be fair or a proper use of public funds. He also said 15% of units in the existing sales scheme remained unsold, with management, ownership and pricing issues requiring careful study.
Wong said the public-housing composite waiting time had fallen to 4.8 years, and the government was confident of reaching its 4.5-year target for 2026/27. The Housing Bureau began studying whether to convert more rental homes to sale units in October and sent questionnaires to more than 14,000 public-rental, subsidised-sale and private-home households. Results are expected as early as next year.