In the politically charged and divisive society of Hong Kong, there are few things that could more readily win public consensus and support than the Housing Authority's (HA) new initiative to facilitate more efficient and rational allocation of public rental housing (PRH) flats.

The Housing Authority has decided to tighten the policy for well-off tenants living in public housing flats to address long waiting times for public housing. This mainly involves tightening the eligibility rules for public rental housing to force well-off tenants to move out, giving priority to those with genuine need. Stanley Wong Yuen-fai, chairman of the HA's Subsidized Housing Committee, confirmed the adoption of these proposals after the committee's meeting on Monday.

Given the scarce supply of public housing in the city, it is axiomatic that PRH flats should be made available only to the underprivileged. But the fact is at least 26,000 households that have become financially well off continue to stay in PRH flats. This is not only unfair to all taxpayers but also deprives many families that have a bigger need for public rental housing of the opportunity to move into a PRH flat earlier.

Measures have been taken by the HA previously to encourage well-off tenants to move out of their PRH flats. These mainly involved raising rents. Up to now, households with income equivalent to two to three times the public rental housing income limit are required to pay 1.5 times net rent plus rates, while those with income exceeding three times the income limit are required to pay double net rent plus rates. But these measures have failed to induce the wealthy tenants to vacate their PRH flats. The reason is quite obvious: Even when paying double net rent, the cost of staying in a PRH flat remains a very low fraction of that charged for a comparable flat in the private housing market.

Obviously, more drastic measures were needed to be taken by the HA to achieve its objective of giving priority to those with genuine need and shortening their waiting time.

The HA's latest moves to tighten the public housing eligibility rules have immediately attracted objections from some PRH tenant groups. But amid increasingly vocal calls in the community to ensure rational allocation of public housing resources, the authority was right to take the fair and necessary measures. More than 280,000 applicants are waiting desperately for a chance to move into a PRH flat and the average waiting time for an applicant has been extended to more than four years. This made it all the more imperative for the HA to take swift action.

(HK Edition 11/01/2016 page1)