************************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
The Hong Kong Housing Authority's (HA) Subsidised Housing Committee (SHC) today (June 11) approved the public rental housing (PRH) allocation plan for 2015/16 (see Table 1 ).
"Under the PRH allocation plan for 2015/16, it is estimated that a total of 34 700 PRH flats will be available for allocation, out of which 24 750 flats, or 71.3 per cent, will go to PRH applicants, representing an increase as compared with the 68.6 per cent of last year," a spokesman for the HA said.
The 34 700 flats comprise an estimated 22 300 new flats and 12 400 refurbished flats.
A total of 2 200 flats will be set aside for non-elderly one-person applicants under the Quota and Points System (QPS) in 2015/16, following SHC's endorsement in October last year to increase the annual allocation quota from 8 to 10 per cent of the number of flats to be allocated to PRH applicants for applicants under QPS, subject to a cap of 2 200 flats.
A total of 340 flats will be reserved to cater for rehousing needs generated by various clearance programmes implemented by the Government and the Urban Renewal Authority.
Ten flats will be reserved for the category of Estate Clearance and Major Repairs, mainly for eligible households affected by the clearance operation of Long Bin Interim Housing (IH).
"For planning purposes, 2 000 flats will be set aside for Compassionate Rehousing in 2015/16," the spokesman said, adding that the number is not a quota. "As in the past, subject to the availability of resources, we will address any additional demand for cases recommended by the Social Welfare Department."
A total of 6 500 flats are reserved for various transfer purposes for PRH tenants to meet their housing needs.
"Among them, 1 000 flats are for transfer of under-occupation households since larger flats thus recovered can be deployed for easing the keen demand of applicants with four or more household members," the spokesman said,
"Another 300 flats will be reserved for the voluntary transfer exercise for tenants in Po Tin Estate. PRH flats recovered from the exercise will serve as IH to receive clearees displaced by the clearance of Long Bin IH and to meet the future demand for IH in the New Territories."
The remaining 5 200 flats will be flexibly deployed for other transfer purposes, including the Territory-wide Overcrowding Relief Transfer Exercise, the Living Space Improvement Transfer Scheme, the Harmonious Families Transfer Scheme, the conversion programme of Housing for Senior Citizens and Internal Transfer and Special Transfer for individual tenants on medical and/or social grounds.
"The number of flats set aside for Junior Civil Servants and Pensioners will be increased, for the first time since 2007/08, to 1 100 in 2015/16 to cater for the expected increase in demand," the spokesman said.
"We will closely monitor any changes in the circumstances and will remain flexible in allocation of the flats to ensure optimisation of resources."
Meanwhile, following the decision on November 24 last year to implement one more round of the Interim Scheme to Extend the Home Ownership Scheme Secondary Market to White Form Buyers to better test out the Interim Scheme's effect before conducting a full review, the SHC decided today the income and asset limits of applicants under the Interim Scheme, which were derived in accordance with the established methodology (See Table 2).
The HA plans to invite eligible White Form applicants to apply for the new round of the Interim Scheme around late August this year.
Ends/Thursday, June 11, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:21
NNNN
