The Housing Department will move to a five-day week from July 1, with most of its back-end offices, including its headquarters in Ho Man Tin, no longer open on weekends.

Offices dealing with applications for, and allocation of, public rental housing; the housing information centre, the Housing Authority Exhibition Centre, and Housing Department offices in public rental housing estates dealing with non-emergency management and maintenance services; will be closed on weekends. Statutory services in handling appeals submitted under the Housing Ordinance and the Estate Agents Ordinance will also be unavailable.

To compensate for the opening hours lost on Saturdays, office hours from Mondays to Fridays will be extended, from 8.45am to 6pm. A few offices will adopt slightly different hours to meet operational requirements.

A drop-in box will be available at the atrium of the Housing Authority headquarters for collecting documents submitted in person by the public from 8.45am to 6pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Such documents may include appeals submitted under the Housing Ordinance and the Estate Agents Ordinance.

Services provided by the department which will not move to five-day-week mode of operation at this stage include anti-illegal hawking services, warden services provided at housing for senior citizens, shroff counter services provided at property management units and district tenancy management offices, data centre operation, materials testing laboratory (concrete testing), site supervisory activities, and services provided for the media.

More details are available at the Housing Authority's website or here. For enquiries call 1823 Citizen's Easy Link.