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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
The Hong Kong Housing Authority's Subsidised Housing Committee (SHC) today (November 16) approved a special exercise for the sale of surplus Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats solely for the Qualified Households affected by the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) project.
About 150 households in Choi Yuen Tsuen, Shek Kong and 10 others elsewhere are affected by land clearance to make way for essential railway facilities of the XRL project, which is of enormous importance to Hong Kong. For the affected households, the Government earlier approved a special ex-gratia rehousing package, which included an option proposed to the Housing Authority for a Qualified Household to purchase a surplus HOS flat in the New Territories.
"In accordance with approval by the SHC, as a one-off special arrangement, a Qualified Household would be given the opportunity to purchase a surplus HOS flat in the New Territories on Green form status according to the flat selection priority to be decided by the Transport and Housing Bureau," an authority spokesman said.
Around 400 surplus HOS flats in the New Territories with flat size ranging from about 19 square metres to 61 square metres in saleable area will be offered for sale around April 2010 in this special sales exercise. The flats are located in Tsueng Kwan O, Ma On Shan, Tin Shui Wai and Fanling districts.
The committee also agreed in principle that under very special circumstances, such as to enable an elderly to be taken care of by relatives, the Secretary for Transport and Housing in consultation with an inter-departmental advisory panel can allow the Qualified Household concerned to purchase a surplus HOS flat in other districts on compassionate grounds. The SHC would consider the details at the next meeting.
"In line with the guiding principles and general guideline in setting the prices of surplus HOS flats, a discount of 30% of market value will also apply in this sales exercise and a detailed pricing proposal would be submitted for SHC's approval before the launch of the special sales exercise," the spokesman said.
The spokesman stressed that this one-off approval by SHC would not apply to squatters or other residents of temporary structures who may be affected by any other land resumptions and clearances.
There is a remaining stock of about 3,600 surplus HOS flats not yet designated for sale. These flats, together with any flats remained unsold in Phase 5 and this special sales exercise, would be put up for sale from Phase 6 onwards.
Ends/Monday, November 16, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:43
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