Applications for more than 7,000 subsidised flats in Hong Kong set to open in July
- Homes will be priced at 37 per cent below market rate, or between HK$1.23 million and HK$5.13 million, according to Housing Authority plan
- Flats in four housing estates, in Diamond Hill, Fo Tan, Fanling and Ma On Shan, will be up for grabs
Applications for more than 7,000 subsidised flats – the largest single batch of government-built homes to be put on sale in Hong Kong in over two decades – will open next month.
The homes will be priced at 37 per cent below the market rate, or between HK$1.23 million (US$157,692) and HK$5.13 million, according to a plan endorsed by the Housing Authority’s subsidised housing committee on Monday.
The selected applicants – to be chosen by lucky draw – would pick from between four housing estates, with 940 flats available in Diamond Hill, 806 in Fo Tan, 3,222 in Fanling and 2,079 in Ma On Shan. With a total of 7,047 flats, it is the largest number of flats in one batch since 1999.
Kai Cheung Court, an estate atop Diamond Hill MTR station, is the priciest of the four developments because of its urban location, with homes costing an average of HK$9,365 per square foot. Flats range in size from 294 to 501 sq ft, and residents would be able to move in after May 2023.
The cheapest are in Fanling, where a 277 sq ft flat is priced at HK$1.23 million, or HK$5,443 per square foot. Flats are priced at an average of HK$7,550 and HK$7,784 per square foot for the sites in Fo Tan and Ma On Shan respectively.
Flats under the Home Ownership Scheme, which are built by the authority, are available to buy at heavy discounts for people who meet specified income and asset limits.
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For example, a two-member household not renting a public housing flat – so-called white form applicants – should earn no more than HK$66,000 a month and own assets worth less than HK$1.7 million. For single applicants, the limits are half of these.
Public housing tenants can apply using “green forms”, but successful buyers must return their current home to the government.
The ratio of white- to green-form applicants for the latest batch was changed to 6:4 from the previous 5:5 to provide families renting in the private market with more opportunities, the committee said.
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Committee chairman Stanley Wong Yuen-fai said the ratio was changed because another scheme specifically for public housing tenants would make 4,700 flats available for sale in the coming months.
With the Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme being rolled out, the number of subsidised flats – for sale or rent – could reach 12,000 this year, Wong said, while expressing concern about a plunge in the coming two years.
“As we are facing land shortages, there might not be enough subsidised housing units in the next one or two years, thus we may be failing to reach the target, which sets to provide 9,100 units each year for the next decade,” he said.
Opposition lawmaker and committee member Andrew Wan Siu-kin said he was concerned as to whether it was a suitable time for low-income residents to invest in the property market given the economic downturn, and the average price at some of the sites was high.
