710,000 tenants to benefit from government's public rental scheme

Government to shoulder two months' rent for tenants.

According to a report, the Housing Authority’s public rental housing tenants, including interim housing licencees, will not be required to pay all or part of their rent or licence fees for August and September.

To help ease the community's burden, the Financial Secretary announced in the Budget in February a series of one-off measures, including paying two months' rent for public rental housing tenants.

The Government will pay the rent in full for tenants and licencees paying normal rent. As for those paying additional rent, the Government will pay on their behalf the net rent for two months and they are required to pay the additional rent.

The Legislative Council Finance Committee approved funding for the rent payment in June. About 710,000 tenants will benefit, costing the Government about $2.054 billion.