In order to fill the short-term gap of public housing supply and improve the living conditions and quality of life of people with pressing housing needs at the soonest, the Chief Executive (CE) announced in 2022 Policy Address that the Light Public Housing (LPH) will be built under a Government-led approach. The target is to complete the construction of about 30 000 units by 2027-28 for citizens with pressing housing needs, and the primary target group is applicants who have been on the waiting list for public rental housing (PRH) for three years or more, with priority given to family applicants. In order to reflect more comprehensively the effectiveness of the Government in improving the living conditions of the public through providing different types of subsidised rental housing, the CE also announced in 2022 Policy Address that Composite Waiting Time for Subsidised Rental Housing (CWT) would be introduced to calculate the composite waiting time* of PRH general applicants (i.e. family and elderly one-person applicants) for receiving the first offer of PRH or LPH units.
As at end-December 2025, the CWT for general applicants that were housed to PRH or LPH in the past 12 months has continued to maintain at 5.1 years, which is again the lowest record since the first quarter of 2018. Compared with the highest level of 6.1 years before the current-term Government took office, the CWT has been shortened by a full year.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, as many as about 8 800 general applicants were housed to PRH or LPH, including about 3 600 newly completed PRH units, about 3 800 recovered PRH flats, and about 1 400 LPH units. The huge housing supply has effectively shortened the PRH waiting list. Among the general applicants housed to PRH, about 70% (69%) were housed to Urban district and Extended Urban district, while more applicants, as compared with the last quarter, were housed to flats in the New Territories (including the newly completed Choi Shek Estate in Sheung Shui and recovered PRH flats). Since Urban district and Extended Urban district are very popular districts among applicants, their waiting time is about two years longer than that for the New Territories, thus when their waiting time has been taken into account, the CWT has not decreased. On the other hand, given the waiting time of general applicants housed to LPH is obviously shorter, the overall CWT has managed to stay at 5.1 years as at end-December 2025. In fact, since the first LPH project began allocation in the first quarter of 2025, the waiting time of general applicants who were housed to LPH is only 3.2 years on average. This fully highlights that LPH has not only improved living conditions and quality of life of low-income families, but also played a key role in shortening the waiting time for PRH. As compared with subdivided units, residents who are housed to LPH can also save an average of over HK$50,000 in rent per year, which can be accumulated as family savings to plan for a better future.
*CWT refers to the average of the waiting time of those general applicants (i.e. family applicants and elderly one-person applicants) who were housed to PRH or LPH in the past 12 months. It is not applicable to non-elderly one-person applicants under the Quota and Points System. Waiting time refers to the time taken between registration for PRH and first flat offer, excluding any frozen period during the application period (e.g. when the applicant has not yet fulfilled the residence requirement; the applicant has requested to put his/her application on hold pending arrival of family members for family reunion; the applicant is imprisoned, etc). If applicants take into account their waiting time under the Quota and Points System or their frozen period, they may perceive a longer waiting time than the CWT as announced by the Housing Bureau.
The 13 LPH projects will continue to be taken forward in an orderly manner according to the original schedule, among which about 9 500 units have been timely completed in 2025, and about 20 300 and 200 units will be successively completed in 2026 and early 2027 respectively.
Four LPH projects have so far been fully occupied (including the projects at Yau Pok Road in Yuen Long, Choi Hing Road in Ngau Tau Kok, Choi Yuen Road in Sheung Shui and Shun On Road in Kwun Tong), providing over 4 600 units. In addition, projects at Olympic Avenue in Kai Tak (Phase 1) and Tsing Fuk Lane in Tuen Mun were completed for occupation in December 2025.
As at end-December 2025, we received a total of about 27 700 LPH applications. HB will continue to launch the remaining applications according to the works progress of each LPH project gradually, and starting from 23 January 2026, HB will announce the launch of the third phase of application, covering Olympic Avenue in Kai Tak (Phase 2 (Stage 1)), Sheung On Street in Chai Wan, Yan Po Road in Tuen Mun (Stage 1) and Tsing Fat Street in Siu Lam (Block 1).
As mentioned above, in the fourth quarter of 2025, about 7 400 general applicants were housed to PRH, increased by over 30% as compared with that of 5 600 general applicants in the last quarter. Among which about 540 were allocated to elderly one-person applicants. In the same quarter, about 490 non-elderly one-person applicants under the Quota and Points System were housed to PRH.
Among the general applicants who were housed to PRH in the fourth quarter of 2025, about 70% were applicants housed to Urban district and Extended Urban district. These districts are very popular districts among applicants, thus the waiting time for Urban district and Extended Urban district is about two years longer than that for the New Territories. Their longer waiting time has been taken into account in the latest waiting time, therefore, as at end-December 2025, the average waiting time for general applicants who were housed to PRH in the past 12 months has increased slightly by 0.1 years to 5.6 years. Among which, the average waiting time for elderly one-person applicants has increased by 0.2 years to 3.9 years as compared with that of last quarter. It is worth noting that this situation actually reflects that we are achieving policy outcomes, as many general applicants for Urban district and Extended Urban district with longer waiting time were gradually housed to PRH.
In addition to waiting time, the number of applicants on the waiting list is also a reference reflecting the effectiveness of public housing policies. With our multi-pronged approach to expedite the turnover of PRH flats, the number of PRH general applicants has further decreased. As at end-December 2025, there were about 106 300 general applications for PRH, and about 81 500 non-elderly one-person applications under the Quota and Points System. As compared with the highest level of 156 400 cases (as at end-September 2020) and 143 700 cases (as at end-December 2015) of general applications and non-elderly one-person applications, the application number reduced significantly by over 30% and over 40% respectively. In addition, the number of non-elderly one-person applicants aged below 30 recorded an even sharper decline of 60% over the 10-year period, from about 74 500 to about 29 500 as at end-December 2025, clearly demonstrating that the PRH waiting queue is being reduced.
Compared to the number in last quarter (as at end-September 2025), the number of new general applications of this quarter (as at end-December 2025) has decreased by about 7%. We have also observed that many general applicants for Urban district and Extended Urban district with longer waiting time were gradually housed to PRH, which also reflects that our policies are taking effect progressively.
In order to meet the public’s housing needs, the Government will continue to strive to provide public housing of more than 30 000 units per year on average in the next five years (i.e. from 2026-27 to 2030-31), the highest in the past 24 years. With the PRH applicants with longer waiting time being housed to PRH, the short-term fluctuations in the average waiting time for PRH reflect a positive sign, proving that we are effectively tackling the long-standing backlog of waiting cases and laying the foundation for significant improvements in the future. In the long run, the average waiting time for PRH will clearly trend in a positive direction.
To enhance information transparency, the Housing Department (HD) has conducted an analysis of the housing situation of general applicants that were housed to PRH or LPH in 2025. The analysis results show that, following the gradual completion of new PRH projects, the significant results achieved by the HD in its enhanced effectiveness in combating tenancy abuse in recent years, coupled with the completion and occupancy of several Home Ownership Scheme projects and Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme projects by the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), a significant number of PRH tenants vacated their PRH flats due to their purchase of subsidised sale flats. As a result, the number of applicants housed to PRH in 2025 has maintained at a high level of over 20 000 (20 700 cases), nearly 6 300 cases more than the newly registered general applications of 14 500 cases in the same year, which has cleared up a certain amount of long-standing backlogged applications. It is noteworthy that the number of general applications allocated PRH each year far exceeded the number of new applications registered in the same year for two consecutive years, 2024 and 2025, which is the first time since record became available for the HA. This reflects the current-term Government's determination to increase the supply of public housing and to shorten the PRH waiting time, as well as the significant and sustainable effectiveness of its various policies.
In addition, with the gradual completion of LPH projects in the first quarter of 2025, providing about 9 500 units in the same year, the living conditions and quality of life of low-income families have been improved, and the number of general applicants has continued to show a downward trend. Since the waiting time of general applicants who were housed to LPH is only 3.2 years on average, LPH has played a key role in shortening the waiting time for PRH, resulting a significant decrease in CWT from 5.3 years at end-2024 to 5.1 years at end-2025.
Please click the link below for the relevant document:
Annual Analysis of Composite Waiting Time for Subsidised Rental Housing in 2025
Note: The above information only shows the waiting time distribution of general applicants housed to PRH or LPH between January and December 2025. Past trends are no guarantee of future situations. The information only serves as a general reference and should not be used as the basis for projecting the waiting time of individual general applicants.