Ombudsman Jack Chan Jick-chi on Thursday urged Hong Kong’s housing authorities to speed up the recovery of public rental housing (PRH) units so that they can be refurbished and turned over to other tenants waiting in line to get their own flats.

Chan said an Ombudsman direct investigation showed that the Housing Department (HD) and the Hong Kong Housing Society (HKS) have annually recovered 15,700 and 1,100 PRH flats, respectively, in the past five years and implementing reforms could further improve the system.

The HD and HKHS recover PRH flats for various reasons, such as tenants purchasing private flats in the market or subsidized sale flats, moving into residential care homes, passing away or voluntarily surrendering their flat for other reasons. 

“Efficient recovery and refurbishment of PRH flats is essential to speed up the reallocation of flats, thereby shortening the waiting time for public housing,” Chan said.

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The Ombudsman made 19 recommendations to the HD and the HKHS, including on improving workflows to speed up the recovery of PRH flats and procedures for handling items left in PRH flats by previous tenants, and enhancing arrangements for refurbishment and reallocation of PRH flats.

Chan said that, after the Ombudsman launched its investigation, the HD proactively introduced several enhancement measures to expedite the process of refurbishing recovered flats for reallocation to PRH applicants.

Starting from November 2024, the HD has set up a mechanism to provide contractors with information about the housing estates where there will be vacant flats in advance so that the contractors can make arrangements for the materials and manpower required for their refurbishment works, Chan said.

The department will also request that contractors give priority to refurbishment of vacant flats accepted by prospective tenants, he added.

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Chan said the HD has also revised its Vacant Flat Refurbishment Allowance Scheme to extend the coverage to all vacant units regardless of the age of the property so that those who choose to join the program can move in as soon as possible.

“The current-term government has diligently identified sites and built housing estates to solve the pressing housing problem,” Chan said.  

“In combating abuse of public housing, the government has spared no effort and implemented enhancement measures. Its efforts are delivering tangible results,” he added.