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Publicity arrangements for Sale of Home Ownership Scheme Flats 2016
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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:

     In response to media reports today (February 15) on the Sale of Home Ownership Scheme Flats 2016, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) said that details of the sales and publicity arrangements have already been announced in the press release issued on December 9, 2015.

     The spokesman pointed out, "The Residential Properties (First-hand Sales) Ordinance (Cap. 621) does not require that vendors must provide show flats for the sale of uncompleted first-hand residential properties. Since the HA has committed to compressing the preparation work as far as practicable to enable early pre-sale of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats to meet strong public aspirations for home ownership, we have decided not to provide physical show flats for the HOS developments. Instead, we will provide virtual show flat walkthrough videos. For the sale of the first batch of new HOS flats at the end of 2014, we made use of the building information modelling technique to produce virtual show flat walkthrough videos for public viewing at the HA Customer Service Centre (HACSC) and the HA/Housing Department (HD) website, which were well received by the public and the hit rate was over 80 000 during the application period. Therefore, we will continue to make use of the technique for the production of virtual show flat walkthrough videos and models for viewing by the public this time."

     The spokesman added, "Unlike the sale of private properties, sale of HOS flats entails procedures such as application, balloting and detailed vetting. Many of the HOS applicants may not be able to purchase due to failure to pass the eligibility vetting or low priority in flat selection. Therefore, basic and essential information of the HOS developments such as the location, flat layout, flat size and price range should be sufficient for their information for the purpose of deciding whether to submit an application. Take the example of the last sale exercise of HOS flats. Due to an overwhelming response, we made available 140,000 copies of sales brochures for each of the five HOS developments for sale at different times and there were over 130,000 applicants. In the end, only about 5,500 eligible applicants were invited to select flats and all the 2,160 flats were sold out.

     "Drawing reference from the experience last time, the HA will adopt a two-stage approach for the distribution of sales materials to the public and prospective purchasers. Sales booklets with basic and essential information of the HOS developments and price ranges will be made available to the public starting seven days before the commencement up to the end of the application period. Upon passing detailed vetting, successful applicants will be provided with the sales brochures and price lists when the HA invites them to attend the flat selection, so that they will have further details of the developments before they decide whether or not to purchase. The public can also obtain the sales brochures and price lists from the HACSC or download them from designated websites during the flat selection period."
 
     The spokesman said, "We consider that the above arrangements have struck an appropriate balance between the need to provide sufficient information for purchasers to decide whether or to purchase on the one hand, and to ensure efficient use of limited resources to enable early pre-sale of HOS flats on the other."

Ends/Monday, February 15, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:15

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