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Following is a question by the Hon LEE Wing-tat and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva CHENG, in the Legislative Council today (July 4):
Question:
Regarding the Lands Department's Consent Scheme on the sale of uncompleted first-hand residential units, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) given that the Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau ("HPLB") advised in a paper provided to the Panel on Housing of this Council in March this year that it would explore the feasibility of adopting the revised code of measurement of saleable area in the Consent Scheme, whether HPLB has decided to revise the Consent Scheme; if so, of the details of the main scope and provisions relating to consumer protection in the revised Consent Scheme, and whether the Government has reviewed how such provisions can accord proper protection to consumers; if a review has been conducted, of the results; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) of the procedures to be followed by the Government, upon receipt of developers' applications for the sale of uncompleted first-hand residential units, to ensure that developers will accurately provide correct and complete information to prospective buyers during the sale of such units;
(c) whether it knows if the authorities concerned have checked the information contained in the sales brochures provided by developers on uncompleted first-hand residential units and visited the relevant sales sites for inspection, so as to ensure that developers provided the same property sales information to the authorities concerned and to the consumers; if so, of the number, locations and results of such spot checks conducted by the authorities concerned in the past five years; and
(d) of the number of complaints received from the public by the authorities concerned in the past five years about developers providing incorrect or incomplete information in the sales brochures on uncompleted first-hand residential units, as well as the subject matters and scope of such complaints?
Reply:
Madam President,
My reply to the four-part question is as follows :
(a) The Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS) is conducting a review of the code of measuring practice (the code). Upon completion of the review, we will examine carefully the implications of the revised code and consider reviewing the relevant provisions under the Consent Scheme, including the definition of saleable area and the requirements of disclosing floor area information.
(b) When the pre-sale consent application is approved, the Lands Department (LD) will issue a "Consent Letter" to the developer, setting out the terms and conditions of the consent (the provisions under the Consent Scheme) that the developer has to strictly follow. These include making available sales brochures to the public, disclosing in sales brochures the property information as required, specifying in printed advertisements the net number of units exclusively available for public sales and private sales, disclosing to the public the names of the developer, its parent or holding company, the Authorized Person, main superstructure contractor, solicitor firms and mortgagee bank, disclosing to the public in advertisements and sales brochures any personal and financial relationships between the developer and Authorized Person, solicitor and superstructure contractor, etc.
(c) As stipulated in LD's Consent Scheme and the guidelines issued by the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong (REDA), developers must submit sales brochures to the Transport and Housing Bureau (THB) and the Consumer Council for checking to ensure that the information disclosed in sales brochures complies with the relevant requirements under the Consent Scheme.
THB, Estate Agents Authority (EAA) and the Consumer Council have conducted visits to sales sites of first-hand residential property. The number and locations of the visits depend on the number of properties being put on sales and complaints received. As the visits are surprise visits, the details would not be disclosed. In the past visits, we found that some of the developers had failed to provide sufficient sales brochures, and that some estate agents had distributed pricelists that were not published by the developers. In view of this, we have urged the developers concerned to take follow-up actions and asked REDA to improve its guidelines. REDA has responded positively by improving the guidelines and requiring its members to engage independent auditors to certify that the sales arrangements are in compliance with the requirements in the guidelines. EAA has also issued new practice circulars, setting out the rules that estate agents should follow in dealing with sale of uncompleted residential units. These rules include matters requiring estate agents' attention in publishing sales information and providing property information and pricelists, etc.
(d) Over the past five years, LD has received four complaints against developers' non-compliance with Consent Scheme's requirements concerning disclosure of information in sales brochures. Among them, three were proved to have breached the Consent Scheme, as follows :
Nature of breach Follow-up actions
taken by Lands
Department
1. Failure to disclose in LD issued a warning
the sales brochures the letter to the
location plan, scale in developer concerned,
Master Plan,location of requiring it
car parking spaces and strictly follow all
area schedule when the relevant
selling a small quantity requirementsin
of pre-sale units future sales
2. Omission of statement in LD asked the
the sales brochures that developer concerned
vendor could retain 5% of to reprint the sales
the purchase price in the brochures
event of purchasers'
cancellation of agreement
for sales and purchase
3. Failure to disclose in the LD asked the
sales brochures developer concerned
information on the pipes to carry out
in the flat roof abutting improvement works so
a unit, and the as to mitigate the
transformer room on G/F problem caused by
immediately below the the relevant
unit facilities
Ends/Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:25
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