Gov’t studying need for two-bedroom units for two-person households

[Photo: Renato Marques]

The Housing Bureau (IH) is continuing to study the actual need for two-bedroom social housing units among two-person households to ensure the effective use of public resources.

The bureau said four social housing projects in New Urban Zone A – A5, A6, A10 and A11 – are scheduled for completion in phases during the second half of 2026, providing a total of 4,088 units.

The bureau was responding to a written inquiry from lawmaker Leong Sun Iok, who raised concerns about cases in which adult parent-child households had been assigned one-bedroom units.

The bureau said it generally assigns one-bedroom units to two-person households in accordance with existing laws and available housing supply, aiming to ensure the fair and reasonable allocation of public resources.

“Taking into account the social housing resources currently available, the IH expects the overall supply to meet the demand of households on the waiting list across different unit types. The IH is carrying out assessment and allocation work in an orderly manner and making efforts to expedite the assessment process to further reduce waiting times for eligible households and allow them to move into their units as soon as possible,” IH director Iam Lei Leng said in his reply.

“We will continue to study the actual need to allocate two-bedroom units to two-person households to ensure the effective use of public resources,” he added.

Data from the bureau shows that there are currently 2,020 households on the social housing waiting list, most of which consist of one or two people.

However, under the current inquiry mechanism, applicants can only check their scores through the IH website and cannot see their exact position on the overall waiting list.

In the reply, the bureau noted that the IH “notifies applicants, in order, of the results of their assessments and their respective scores by letter, allowing them to understand the status of their housing allocation. In the future, the IH will conduct a comprehensive assessment and continue to increase the transparency of information.”

According to Leong, based on requests for assistance and feedback he has received from residents, some applicants have said they have already been waiting for three to five years.