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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
Following determination of the flat selection sequence for the Sale of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) Flats 2014 in accordance with the results of the ballot exercise held on March 27, the Housing Department (HD) made public in its public housing estates, as well as on the website of the HD and the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) two sets of preliminary flat selection lists for Green Form (GF) and White Form (WF) applications, totalling about 135,000. As reflected by the media after the release of the two lists, some applicants have problems understanding the flat selection sequence. A spokesman for the HD responded today (April 2) as follows:
The HA Subsidised Housing Committee approved in November 2014 that after any family applicants living in public rental housing estates affected by the HA's clearance programmes have selected their flats, ordinary GF and WF applicants will select their flats in the order of 3:2. Family applicants applying under the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Members would have priority over family applicants under other categories in flat selection, and family applicants will have priority over singleton applicants. The flat selection sequence of applicants in the same category would be worked out according to ballot results and then by computer. Related information is set out in the "Quota allocation and priority in flat selection" section of the Application Guide for HOS applicants.
According to the above-mentioned arrangement, for every five applicants on the list, the order will be the first three ordinary GF applicants to be followed by the first two WF applicants, and so on and so forth. A breakdown of the numbers of applicants and their flat selection sequence by categories is listed in the annex. For example, in the current Sale of HOS Flats exercise, the number of GF families applying under the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Member and the number of WF nuclear families applying under the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Member are 3,600 and 3,100 respectively. As a result, the flat selection sequence of all other family applicants would come after them.
The HD, in accordance with established procedures and flat selection sequence lists announced after the ballot, began detailed vetting of the eligibility of each application. Upon completion of the vetting, some applicants may be disqualified if they are found to be ineligible. Some may have their flat selection sequence adjusted to a lower order if there are mistakes in the application forms or changes in the eligibility, etc.
The HD will send notifications in batches later to invite eligible applicants to go to the office of the HOS Sales Unit in Lok Fu for flat selection commencing in early May. Applicants concerned will receive their invitation letters seven days prior to the date of flat selection.
Ends/Thursday, April 2, 2015
Issued at HKT 19:36
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