Hong Kong uses different ordering principles for families and elderly single applicants, and for non-elderly people applying alone for public rental housing. Government records describe general applications as tied to registration order, while non-elderly one-person applicants are ranked through the Quota and Points System. For 2025–26, this category was allotted ten per cent of public-rental allocations, capped at 2,200 flats.
Points reflect factors including age and application history. Each month the Housing Department publishes, by district, the lowest score called for detailed vetting and the lowest score among applicants who accepted offers. This is not a line outside an office, but it is an explicit ordered wait for a home. Applicants measure their position not by counting bodies ahead of them, but by comparing their score with a publicly reported threshold.