LegCo rejects public housing motion after split
SingTao · 5 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago5 MIN
Summary
The Legislative Council rejected a non-binding motion on optimizing public housing policy after divisions emerged over whether better-off public rental housing tenants should be allowed to build up a dedicated home-buying fund from their extra rent payments. The original motion, moved by Kowloon West lawmaker Leung Man-kwong (梁文廣), and two amendments were all voted down, marking the first time in this legislative term that both a motion and its amendments failed. Acting Secretary for Housing Michael Wong Wai-lun said the government would announce the latest public housing waiting time next week and remained confident of bringing it down to 4.5 years, while research on whether to sell more rental flats would be released no earlier than next year.
Key Points
- Leung Man-kwong argued that with more than 196,000 flats to be built over the next five years, policy should move beyond basic shelter toward improving lives and asset accumulation
- He proposed a savings scheme for better-off tenants, converting monthly extra rent into a reserve fund usable only for subsidised home purchases within five years.
- Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong lawmaker Chan Hok-fung opposed that idea, saying it would unfairly benefit only about 40,000 to 50,000 better-off tenants.
- Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker Lam Wai-keung said any relaunch of the Tenants Purchase Scheme should wait until supply supports the three-year waiting-time target.
- Michael Wong said overall public rental housing waiting time had fallen from 6.1 years before this administration took office to 4.8 years by the end of June.
Why It Matters
The failed motion leaves unresolved a central policy question: whether public housing should remain focused on rental support or also be used more actively to help tenants move into ownership. The disagreement also matters for families still waiting for flats, because lawmakers are split over whether measures to help existing tenants buy homes would speed up turnover or reduce the stock available for allocation.