HDB spent $1.5 billion on ramping up housing supply
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) chalked up a net deficit of $797 million in the last financial year (FY2012/2013), which saw an 80% increase from $443 million the year before. This was calculated before a $1.04 billion government grant and taxation were factored in in the same financial year.
In its annual report released on 16 Oct 2013, HDB said the higher deficit stemmed from a larger deficit for its Home Ownership segment. The category encompasses the development and sale of flats to eligible buyers under the various home ownership schemes for public housing.
Leung Chun-ying has highlighted Hong Kong's poverty challenges, but offered no new policy initiatives or targets. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
C.Y. 'not afraid to take tough decisions' after government recognises poverty levels for the first time, but no new initiatives announced
Hong Kong - one of the wealthiest places in the world - has acknowledged for the first time that it has a sizeable poverty problem by declaring that 1.31 million of its citizens are officially poor.
The number of people who fall below the new government-set poverty line falls to 1.01 million after welfare payments such as Comprehensive Social Security Assistance are factored in.
The new housing subsidies to help first-timers buy bigger homes will cost the Government at least $150 million a year, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan revealed yesterday.
This raises the amount to be spent on grants for new flats from about $290 million to over $440 million a year, a sum which includes both the Additional Housing Grant and the Special Housing Grant (SHG).
