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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) Subsidised Housing Committee (SHC) today (December 9) approved the income and asset limits for White Form (WF) applicants, as well as the average selling prices and sales arrangements including a new set of quota allocation for the Sale of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) Flats 2016.
The HA will conduct a joint application exercise with the Hong Kong Housing Society (HS) in which eligible applicants only need to submit one application and undergo one vetting process while having the opportunity to buy either HOS flats of the HA or subsidised sale flats (SSFs) of the HS.
Applications will be invited at the end of February next year and balloting is expected to be held in May 2016. Selection of flats by successful applicants is scheduled to start from July 2016.
For the Sale of HOS Flats 2016, the income limit for family applicants will be $49,000 per month and the asset limit will be $1.7 million. The income and asset limits for one-person applicants will be set at half of the limits for family applicants and will therefore be $24,500 and $850,000 respectively (see Table 1).
"Following the established methodology, the income and asset limits are set after taking into account the latest property market and economic conditions," a spokesman for the HA said.
A total of 2 657 flats from two HOS developments will be put up for sale comprising 248 flats in Ka Shun Court in Sha Tin, with a saleable area of 41.3 square metres to 41.7 sq m, and 2 409 flats in Ping Yan Court in Ping Shan, Yuen Long, with a saleable area of 34.9 sq m to 53.3 sq m.
By applying a discount of 30 per cent from the assessed market values, the prices of the flats range from the lowest at $1,496,900 to the highest at $3,275,700 (see Table 2).
"In assessing the market values, we have considered sale transactions of residential properties in the open market for both private and HOS developments in the vicinity of the two respective developments up to September 2015. Due regard has also been made to the differences in age, location, environment, design, facilities, etc between the comparables and the two developments," the spokesman said.
The SHC also decided to increase the quota for WF applicants by setting the ratio for quota allocation between Green Form (GF) and WF applicants for the Sale of HOS Flats 2016 at 50:50. The flexibility to allocate any remaining GF quota to WF applicants and vice versa will be maintained.
"While it remains our objective to provide public rental housing (PRH) tenants with the opportunity to buy HOS flats or other SSFs so that they will in turn release their PRH flats for reallocation, we also need to suitably address the strong home ownership aspirations of WF applicants as shown in recent HOS sale exercises and the overwhelming response in the two rounds of the Interim Scheme to Extend the HOS Secondary Market to WF Buyers," the spokesman said, adding that the Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Pilot Scheme (GSH) to be launched in the latter half of 2016 would provide additional opportunities for subsidised home ownership to GF applicants.
It was also decided that the established order of priority for flat selection would be followed with some quotas imposed for different categories of applicants (see Table 3).
A quota of 200 flats will be set aside for one-person applicants. The GF and WF applicants will each take up 50 per cent of the quota and any unused GF quota will be allocated to WF applicants and vice versa. One-person applicants will be selecting their flats after family applicants and the prevailing policy of allowing one-person applicants to buy any remaining flat irrespective of the size will be maintained.
"To enable one-person applicants a reasonable chance to select flats offered for sale and given the fact that there are slightly more flats available for sale in the coming sale exercise, we consider that there is a case for setting aside a quota for them," the spokesman said.
A quota of 2 000 flats will also be set for applicants applying under the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Members.
"It is reasonable to set the quota taking into account the situation of the last sale exercise that families without elderly members and one-person applicants, though constituting nearly 95 per cent of the applicants, had very limited chance in buying a flat.
"If families applying under the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Members fail to obtain a quota, they still have the opportunity to purchase under the ordinary GF and WF queues under the 'Other families' category," the spokesman noted.
In this joint application exercise conducted with the HS, the Housing Department will carry out the processing and vetting work for all the applications received. In order to deploy staff resources effectively in preparing and conducting various sale exercises of subsidised flats in the pipeline, the HA will simplify publicity arrangements to enable the timely launch of this sale exercise.
Unlike the last sale exercise, physical show flats for the HOS flats will not be provided and only virtual show flats using the building information modelling technique will be made available.
"We will also adopt a two-stage approach for the distribution of sales materials to the public and prospective purchasers," the spokesman said.
Sales booklets with basic and essential information of the HOS developments and price ranges, which are considered sufficient for the information of the applicants before submitting their applications, will be made available to the public starting seven days before the commencement and up to the end of the application period. Sales brochures and price lists will be made available before commencement of the flat selection period.
"The objective of conducting a joint application exercise is to enable eligible applicants to have the convenience of making one single application while enjoying wider choice of flats. While the HS intends to largely follow the HA's sales arrangements, such as eligibility, quotas for GF and WF applicants, etc, it should be noted that the HA and the HS are essentially two different organisations with different established practices and operational arrangements.
"The flats to be sold are also different in terms of location, fittings and finishes. Applicants are advised to study in detail the different operational arrangements in the sale of the HA and HS flats, which will be clearly set out in the Application Guides. Separate enquiry hotlines for the HA and the HS will be available. During the flat selection stage, both the HA and the HS will have their own staff manning the sales counters," the spokesman added.
The HS will offer 1 020 flats in its SSF development Greenhill Villa in Sha Tin in the sale exercise and a quota of 200 will be set for affected clearees of Ming Wah Dai Ha of the HS to have absolute priority to purchase the SSFs in Greenhill Villa.
Ends/Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Issued at HKT 19:24
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