2010-07-16 13:32

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's Housing Authority said Thursday its members had provisionally endorsed a calculation by the Commissioner for the city's Census and Statistics that public rental housing should rise 4.68 percent.

The authority's Subsidized Housing Committee considered the commissioner's report on the outcome of the first rent review under the new rent adjustment mechanism for public rental housing tenants, which said by comparing the indices of the first and second periods, the level of adjustment for public housing rent is 4.68 percent higher.

The first period refers to 12 months ending December 31, 2007, while the second period ends on December 21, 2009, said the Subsidized Housing Committee.

The Subsidized Housing Committee will meet again July 22 to decide if there should be mitigation measures and what measures should be taken.

Public rental housing is Hong Kong's most numerous type of public housing estates, and is rented at discounted rates to low- income residents. Low-income eligibility criteria for public rental and subsidized-sale flats vary between families, the elderly and individual applicants.

HK's public housing is a set of mass housing program, through which the city government provides affordable housing for lower- income residents. It is a major component of housing in Hong Kong.

According to the 2006 census, 3.3 million HK residents or 48.8 percent of the city's then total population lived in rental or subsidized-sale public housing.

In breakdown, 31 percent lived in public rental housing, 17.1 percent lived in Housing Authority subsidized-sale flats and 0.7 percent lived in Housing Society subsidized-sale flats.