The Housing Authority will refine the Quota & Points System (QPS) for public rental housing.
The authority's Subsidised Housing Committee met today to discuss the way forward to maximise the rational use of public rental housing resources in light of the recommendations by the Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee and the Director of Audit.
It decided that the annual allocation quota for QPS from 2015-16 will rise from 8% to 10% of the number of flats to be allocated to public rental housing applicants on the waiting list, subject to a cap to be increased from 2,000 to 2,200 units.
It decided to reduce the inadvertent incentive for early application under QPS, the scale of age points will rise from three points to nine per year of age increase at the time of application.
QPS applicants reaching the age of 45 will be awarded a one-off bonus of 60 points to offer them a higher priority over younger applicants.
To enable the authority to have a more realistic grasp of the situation of QPS applicants and better assess demand, checking will be conducted on applicants who have waited for five years but are not yet due for detailed vetting within the next two years.
Implementation of the refined points system as well as the regular checking of the eligibility of QPS applicants will take effect from February 1.
As a one-off arrangement, the points of existing applicants who have submitted applications or have been registered before February 1, 2015, will be re-calculated under the refined system. They can either keep the higher points already accrued under the existing system or be awarded the differences in points if the re-calculated total points are higher.
For applicants who have passed detailed eligibility vetting and are undergoing the allocation process, their priority for allocation will be based on their points awarded under the new points system, or their points under the old system, whichever enables earlier allocation.
As a one-off arrangement, the existing priority of Long Bin Interim Housing non-elderly one-person clearees for rehousing to public rental housing under QPS will be retained to facilitate the clearance operation.
The authority said most prospective applicants will be able to obtain more points under the refined system. On the regular checking, it will only screen out those who are no longer eligible for public rental housing, it added.
The authority will inform all applicants of their points in writing after implementation of the refined system.
