As of the end of December, there were 133,700 general applications and another 96,200 applications for non-elderly singletons, totaling 229,900.

The latest average waiting time for a general applicant is 5.5 years, down by 0.1 year since the last quarter, while the waiting time for a single elderly applicant remained unchanged at 3.9 years.

The authority said the drop in wait time is mainly due to the availability of a substantial number of flats for allocation in the past few quarters, which absorbed the demand of general applicants who have waited for a relatively long time.