Secretary for Housing Unveils Comprehensive Plan to Address Hong Kong's Housing Challenges

Opening remarks by S for Housing on housing at LegCo Finance Committee special meeting

Following are the opening remarks (English translation) by the Secretary for Housing, Ms Winnie Ho, on housing at the special meeting of the Legislative Council Finance Committee today (April 10):

Chairman and Members,

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all Members for your staunch support for the work of the Housing Bureau and valuable suggestions which were good references for helping us formulate policies well in line with the actual circumstances and implement these policies in a more pragmatic manner.

The Housing Bureau and the Housing Department have always been striving to enable citizens to live a peaceful and contented life, and enhance their sense of well-being and sense of gain. Housing matters top the agenda of the current-term Government.The Housing Bureau has demonstrated its determination and courage to practically resolve the housing issues in Hong Kong by continuously introducing a myriad of measures to enhance quantity, speed, efficiency, and quality.Complemented with appropriate resources and financial arrangements, we break through constraints to improve people's livelihood and enhance their well-being.

Public housing

The current-term Government has been dedicated to substantially increasing the public housing supply since it took office.Coupled with around 30 000 Light Public Housing (LPH) units, the total public housing supply in the next five years (from 2025-26 to 2029-30) will reach 190 000 units, which is about 80 per cent higher than that of the first five-year period since the current-term Government took office (2022-23 to 2026-27). With the above, eligible citizens can be housed in public rental housing (PRH) more quickly.

The LPH-related works have been progressing smoothly. Design and construction works of all the 13 projects have gradually commenced.Among all, the project at Yau Pok Road in Yuen Long has commenced intake since March 28.With our utmost effort in cost control, a total saving of about $3,700 million (around 15 per cent) was achieved in the total construction costs of LPH projects as compared with our funding application approved by the Finance Committee.It is our goal to complete the construction of about 30 000 LPH units by 2027-28 so that residents can have a better living environment while waiting for PRH and make their future housing plans. Along with transitional housing and the various traditional PRH projects to be completed in the coming few years, the Government will have the fundamental strength in taking forward a comprehensive strategy to effectively and accurately address the problem of subdivided units (SDUs) in Hong Kong.

Regulatory regime on Basic Housing Units (BHUs)

The Task Force on Tackling the Issue of Subdivided Units, led by the Deputy Financial Secretary, proposed an orderly solution to the issue of SDUs after consulting various stakeholders.The Government is now actively formulating the regulatory regime on BHUs, with an aim of introducing the BHUs Bill into the Legislative Council (LegCo) in the second half of 2025. We will proactively facilitate LegCo's scrutiny to strive for completion of the legislative work within 2025.We expect the registration for pre-existing SDUs to commence in end-2025 or early 2026 at the earliest, with applications for recognition as BHUs to be accepted concurrently.In parallel, the dedicated team under the Rating and Valuation Department will continue to execute relevant duties related to tenancy controls on SDUs under the Landlord and Tenant (Consolidation) Ordinance (the Ordinance), and will step up the publicity to promote the Ordinance.

Enhancing the housing ladder

In addition to assisting people in the community with pressing housing needs, the Government has also been striving to enhance the housing ladder in response to the home ownership aspirations of the public.With the increase in the overall public housing supply, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is reviewing the public housing projects to be completed in the middle or near the end of the next decade, with an aim to gradually adjust the ratio between PRH (including Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme (GSH) units) and subsidised sale flats (SSF) from the current 7:3 to 6:4.Starting from the next GSH and Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) sale exercises, the HA will allocate an extra ballot number to applicants who failed to purchase an SSF in the last two consecutive sale exercises, so as to increase the chance of applicants who have made repeated attempts to purchase an SSF.Moreover, starting from the next HOS sale exercise, the ratio between Green Form and White Form in respect of HOS flats will be revised from 4:6 to 5:5 to encourage more PRH tenants to buy HOS flats.

In order to address young people's aspirations of home ownership and encourage them to move up along the housing ladder, under the White Form Secondary Market Scheme (WSM) 2024 launched on March 6, the quota has been increased by 1 500 to 6 000, with all of the additional 1 500 quotas allocated to young family applicants and one-person applicants aged below 40. Furthermore, an extra ballot number will be allocated to young family applicants and one-person applicants aged below 40 with White Form status for the purchase of HOS flats starting from the next sale exercise.Under WSM 2024, those who participate in the debut Youth Scheme (WSM) account for about 80 per cent of the total number of applications, reflecting the popularity of the scheme among young people.

As for the private housing supply, according to the latest projections, the supply of first-hand private residential properties will remain at a relatively high level of about 107 000 units in the next three to four years.To ease the burden on buyers of properties at lower values, the Financial Secretary announced in the 2025-26 Budget the adjustment of the value bands of the ad valorem stamp duty payable for the sale and purchase or transfer of residential and non‑residential properties. The maximum value of properties chargeable to a stamp duty of $100 will be raised from $3 million to $4 million.We believe that the above measure would appeal to those who are eager to purchase flats, particularly young people who aspire to buy their first homes.The Government will continue to closely keep in view the developments in the property market and control the supply at a good pace in accordance with the annual supply target as promulgated in the Long Term Housing Strategy Annual Progress Report.

Chairman, the above measures fully demonstrate the pragmatic and people-oriented approach of the current-term Government as well as our sustained effort in refining housing policies.My colleagues and I will continue to pay heed to Members' suggestions and we are pleased to answer their questions. Thank you, Chairman.

Follow-up action taken by DH on suspected closure of private healthcare facilities

​The Department of Health (DH) said today (May 2) that it was very concerned about the suspected closure of certain private healthcare facilities and was working with the relevant law enforcement departments through an inter-departmental task force to actively follow up on the incident. In addition, the DH will provide vaccination service to children affected by the incident in accordance with the established arrangements under the Hong Kong Childhood Immunisation Programme (HKCIP), which is free for eligible children.

Vaccination service for children affected by the incident

All 29 Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) under the DH provide vaccination service for infants and young children from birth to five years of age under the HKCIP. The Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases under the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the DH holds regular meetings and gives science-based advice and recommendations to the CHP regarding the types of vaccines to be incorporated into the HKCIP from the public health perspective in a timely manner. Currently, the DH provides free vaccination services for eligible children under the HKCIP for the prevention of 12 communicable diseases with public health significance, namely tuberculosis, hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, tetanus, pertussis, measles, diphtheria, mumps, rubella, varicella, pneumococcal infection, and human papillomavirus infection. For other vaccines that are not included in the HKCIP due to scientific evidence, parents can consult their family doctors and consider to arrange vaccination for their children according to their personal needs.

On average, over 90 per cent of locally born babies visit MCHCs for Child Health Services including immunisation every year. For children affected by the incident and have been registered with one of the MCHCs, their parents may make an appointment by calling the registered MCHCs (see Annex) to consult the healthcare staff at the MCHCs on the vaccinations that their children need to receive in the future. For a small number of children who have not been registered with the MCHCs, parents may call the hotline (2125 1188), which will operate from tomorrow (May 3) from 9am to 5pm daily until further notice. Parents can also send emails to dhhelpdesk_2501@dh.gov.hk or WhatsApp messages to 6170 8006 respectively for enquiries. Information on the services and booking procedures of the MCHCs is available at www.fhs.gov.hk.

Even if a child has received some of the vaccinations in private hospitals or clinics, healthcare professionals at the MCHCs can verify and assess the remaining vaccinations that a child needs to receive according to the recommendations of the HKCIP through the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS) or the hardcopy of immunisation records provided by the parents and arrange for the remaining vaccinations for the child in a timely manner to safeguard his/her health.

Other follow-up actions on suspected closure of private healthcare facilities

Under the existing legislation regulating the healthcare professions, vaccines are required to be prescribed by registered medical practitioners. The conduct of the registered medicalpractitioners is regulated by the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK) and the laws governing the conduct of the relevant professions. If any registered medical practitioner is suspected to have breached professional conduct in this incident, the DH will refer the case to the MCHK for necessary follow-up action. As for business arrangements involving the provision of healthcare services which are outside the scope of professional conduct (e.g. commercial marketing and charging etc) and are regulated by other relevant legislations. The Government has set up an inter-departmental task force to follow up on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Government will temporarily remove the name of the private healthcare facilities from the Primary Care Directory, the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme and the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme.