Public housing wait drops to 4.7 years

The Housing Bureau on Thursday said the average waiting time for a public housing unit dropped to 4.7 years in the latest quarter – making it the lowest in more than eight years. The waiting period was 0.4 years shorter than in the previous quarter. In a statement, the bureau noted that the figure stood at the highest level of 6.1 years before the current-term government took office in July 2022 and fell below five years for the first time. Officials aim to reduce the period to four-and-a-half years in 2026/27. “In the first quarter of 2026, we have successfully arranged for a total of about 8,400 general applicants to be housed in public rental or light public housing," a spokesman said. "Nearly half [47 percent] of them were housed in light public housing units, which is significantly higher than the proportion in the last quarter [16 percent]." The bureau expects fewer applicants to be allocated to a public housing home in the coming quarter, causing a slight change in the waiting time. But it foresees the waiting time to stay at five years or less, showing that the period is still on a downward trend. Edited by Tony Sabine