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The Government is committed to maintaining a monitoring mechanism for first-hand transactions of uncompleted private residential properties that has greater flexibility and can strike a balance between protecting consumers' interest and not fettering the free operation of the property market.
The Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Housing), Mr Thomas Chan Chun-yuen, said this at a press briefing today (June 22).
"At present, our three-pronged approach through the Real Estate Developers Association (REDA) issuing guidelines for developers to follow, the Consumer Council enhancing consumer education and the Estate Agents Authority taking enforcement action against misbehaved estate agents has achieved a discernible effect," he said.
Noting that consumers should think very carefully before buying residential properties, Mr Chan said that the Consumer Council and the Estate Agents Authority had jointly published a checklist, to be inserted in sales brochures, listing things which purchasers of first-hand residential properties should pay particular attention to.
"If a developer is in breach of provisions prescribed in Lands Department's Consent Scheme for sale of uncompleted residential units, the Lands Department could take enforcement action depending on the extent of the breach.
"The Lands Department may issue warnings and ask the developer concerned to correct the information. The department can suspend, or even withdraw, its consent to discontinue the sale and require the developer to allow buyers not to complete the Agreement for Sale and Purchase and to refund the buyers the money paid plus interest," Mr. Chan said.
"Since REDA issued a more detailed set of guidelines in June last year (including asking developers to make copies of the Land Lease and the Deed of Mutual Convenant available for prospective buyers' inspection), there has been marked improvements in arrangements for flat sales.
"In the past year, we have received seven complaints regarding first-hand transactions of private residential properties and have followed-up on six of the cases. There were no further enquiries from the complainants in those six cases. As for the remaining complaint, we have just received details and are now taking follow-up action," Mr Chan said.
Referring to recent public concern about how developers released sales figures, Mr Chan said that REDA had agreed to remind its members to ensure that they released accurate information about sales situation and to standardise the definition of "sale" to refer to the signing of a Preliminary Agreement for Sale and Purchase.
"We will continue to regularly meet with the Consumer Council, Estate Agents Authority and REDA to monitor the operation of the self-regulatory regime and to identify scope for further improvement to ensure that the regime meets the needs of consumers and the real estate sector," Mr Chan said.
Ends/Thursday, June 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 17:44
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