The Hong Kong government will step up efforts to combat “rich tenants” in subsidised public housing units, vowing to check the value of tenants’ vehicles and whether they own property in the city or overseas.
Housing chief Winnie Ho announced the enhanced initiatives in an interview with Beijing-backed newspaper Tai Kung Pao on Monday, saying that they were necessary because of a limited supply of public housing. The Housing Department had revised income and assets declaration arrangements and strengthened online monitoring to identify tenants who were illegally subletting their units.
Since October, all public housing tenants must declare their income and assets every two years. Any household whose income exceeds five times the income limit or whose net asset value exceeds 100 times the limit is required to move out of government-subsidised housing.
Ho said that asset value include the value of vehicles, assets in Hong Kong, in mainland Chinese and overseas.
She added that staff working at public housing estates would pay attention to vehicles in the parking lot, and would use the Transport Department’s vehicle registry to estimate their value if they identified any luxury cars.
“If we discover that a tenant owns non-local properties, we will also take them into account when assessing their assets. We will liaise with relevant authorities, such as the Guangdong Provincial Department of Land and Resources, to verify the related information,” Ho said in Cantonese.
Rosanna Law, director of housing, said on RTHK on Monday that authorities expected to take back around 2,000 public housing units in 2024 as a result of these efforts.
Law said that authorities had already reclaimed two public housing units after tenants were found to own residential and commercial properties in mainland China.
Law added that the government had ways to trace tenants’ overseas properties but she refused to reveal further details.
Increased rent
Hong Kong reviews rental costs for public housing units every two years, with the next review beginning in mid-2024.
Law said on Cable TV on Saturday that rent for public housing units would still be affordable if it was increased by 10 per cent.
She added that the median rent for public housing currently is HK$2,200 per month.
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