The interim findings of the first comprehensive study of Hong Kong’s transitional housing programme—titled Study on Effective Transitional Housing Delivery in Hong Kong—have shown that the local programme is unprecedented in terms of scale and development speed while also having the widest societal participation, in comparison with overseas programmes in other cities using relocatable building structures.
Upon full completion of all committed projects using modular integrated construction (MiC) in Hong Kong, it can accommodate more than 40,000 persons, with over 6,000 people accommodated in completed projects from 2017 to 2022, and more than 18,125 units in about five years.
Read:
- Five-year Overview: Adoption of Modular Integrated Construction
- Kong Ha Wai Transitional Housing Project
- Around 30,000 Light Public Housing Units to be Built in the Coming Five Years
According to Prof Ling Kar Kan, Director of JCDISI of PolyU and Principal Investigator of the study, the achievement of the programme is attributed to the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that proactively echo the Government’s call to take up a pivotal role in the development of transitional housing.
Besides highlighting the merits of the programme, the study has also identified pain points faced by stakeholders: relatively short tenure of the sites; limited scope of funding scheme; technical issues in design and development process; concerns over occupancy rates of projects at remote locations; and the administrative burden related to project promotion, tenant recruitment and eligibility assessment.
Thus, the study has included policy recommendations for the Government to recognise transitional housing as a housing type in addition to the conventional classifications; integrate transitional housing and Light Public Housing (LPH) programmes to minimise rental differentiation; standardise the design of MiC units to improve cost effectiveness; assist tenants in settling in the Northern Metropolis; engage NGOs to provide communal space; and implement advance planning on the reuse of MiC units.
The three-year study has been conducted by the Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (JCDISI) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) since 2021 under the Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme. For details, please refer to the full report on interim findings here. —Construction+ Online
