HONG KONG, CHINA | Ombudsman announces results of direct investigation operation into Housing Department’s handling of illegal parking in public housing estates

On 13 March 2025, the Ombudsman, Mr Jack Chan, announced the completion of a direct investigation operation into the Housing Department ("HD")'s handling of illegal parking in public housing estates, and made 12 recommendations for improvement to the HD.

Currently, there are 195 public housing estates in Hong Kong, with more than 780,000 households and about 2 million residents (not including residents of Tenants Purchase Scheme and Buy-or-Rent Option). The HD is responsible for the day-to-day management of estates and handling a wide range of issues. As proper management of public housing is a vital livelihood issue, this Office has decided to conduct detailed studies on it. Given the broad scope, the Office will initiate direct investigation operations into various aspects of public housing management in phases.  This direct investigation operation focuses on illegal parking.

From time to time, the Office takes note of public complaints and media reports about illegal parking in public housing estates. Particularly, the Office is concerned about the obstruction of emergency vehicular access by illegally parked vehicles, which may hinder the rescue operations of emergency vehicles in the event of contingencies and lead to serious consequences. In this connection, the Office probed the HD’s enforcement mechanism against illegal parking in public housing estates, with site inspections conducted in four selected estates, namely Yau Oi Estate, Cheung Hong Estate, Lai Yiu Estate and Queens Hill Estate, where the installation of vehicle barrier gates in all vehicular access is infeasible due to geographical constraints.

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Source: The Office of the Ombudsman of Hong Kong, China