Public flat rent increase ‘will be no more than 10%’
Public flat tenants will find any increase in rent under a coming review affordable as it will be no more than 10 per cent, the housing chief has said.
Director of Housing Rosanna Law Shuk-pui sought to reassure tenants yesterday with the government set to review public housing rents in the middle of the year.
“Even if there is an increase in rents, it will not be more than 10 per cent based on existing regulations, which will be affordable to public housing tenants,” she told a television programme.
“At present, the average rent is about HK$2,200 but 40 per cent of the tenants don’t need to make a rental payment of over HK$2,000 per month, with some only paying several hundred dollars per month.
“Even if the increase is 10 per cent, it will be about HK$100 to HK$200 more, or lower than that.”
Law said the review – which was conducted every two years – would take into account changes in household incomes to reflect the economic situation.
The sluggish economy would have little impact on income assessment, she said.
“At present, many firms have difficulties hiring workers, including those which offer very high salaries,” Law said.
“Even though the investment market is not doing good, it doesn’t mean that people’s incomes have been drastically dropping.”
The rent increase for public flats in 2022 was 1.17 per cent.
The Housing Authority, the main provider of public housing, had earlier signalled the need for rent increases, as it feared it would rack up a deficit of more than HK$4 billion in four years’ time for its rental operations arm if no adjustments were made.
That was despite a small surplus of HK$174 million in 2023-24 rental operations and an overall surplus of HK$15 billion.
But income from the sale of subsidised flats is also expected to fall next year.
In April, the Housing Department would conduct a second round of checks on tenants living in public housing for more than 10 years, Law added.
Tenants would be asked to declare their mainland and overseas properties under a compulsory asset declaration system to weed out abuses.