2,160 cheap flats to go on sale next month
First new homes offered under revived scheme will cost as little as HK$1.9m, but public housing tenants will take the lion's share again
Some 2,160 new subsidised flats will go on the market at the end of next month at prices of as little as HK$1.9 million, sources with knowledge of the plan said.
They are the first new flats released since HOS was revived by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying in 2012, nine years after it was scrapped as prices in the private market plummeted.
Ranging from 345 sq ft to 475 sq ft, the flats are at developments in Sha Tin, Tsuen Wan, Tsing Yi and Yuen Long and will be ready in 2017, the source said. The biggest and most expensive flats are in Tsuen Wan, while the smallest and cheapest are in Sha Tin.
The sources said more than 90 per cent of the flats would be priced at between HK$2 million and HK$3 million, about 30 per cent below the market value. But steeper discounts would be offered to applicants deemed unable to afford the homes.
Buyers last year rushed to snap up 832 unsold or returned apartments offered under the scheme. Earlier this year, there was a similar rush to buy former public rental flats in Tai O, Lantau, that were converted to HOS.
As with previous tranches, 60 per cent of the homes will be offered to public housing tenants - so-called green form applicants, with 40 per cent going to "white form" applicants, those renting in the private sector.
"White form" applicants for family homes must have an income of no more than HK$46,000 per month and assets of no more than HK$1.01 million. For single applicants, the limits are halved.
"If we adopt this income limit, 100 per cent [of 'white form' applicants] can afford the flats," said a source. The sources would not disclose the ratio of flats given to families versus single people, saying the Housing Authority would discuss the matter further.
"But we would consider giving more priority to the families," one source said, adding that households that included elderly people might be given first choice when it came to allocating flats.
A ballot will be used if there are more applicants than flats.
The sources said the developments would be no-frills affairs, without clubhouses or fancy decorations. Many applicants in Tai O were put off by high management charges.
"These are … buildings with only basic facilities," one source said.
When it offered the 832 homes last year, the Housing Authority received more than 14,000 applicants, 93 per cent of them from "white form" buyers, meaning 40 people were competing for each "white form" flat.
But the sources dismissed the idea of changing the balance between "white" and "green" buyers, saying the ratio was intended to ease a chronic shortage of public flats, for which applicants are waiting more than three years.
