General HOS applicants fear slimmer chances as clearance tenants get priority

Applications for the Home Ownership Scheme 2025 and Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme 2025 close on Wednesday, with around 6,300 households affected by the clearance of four estates given top priority in flat selection.

The arrangement has raised concerns among general applicants over whether their chances of buying a flat will be affected.

HOS 2025 and GHS 2025 offer 6,926 and 857 flats respectively. Another 2,000 flats have been reserved for Wang Fuk Court owners under a special sales exercise.

The Housing Authority said the proportion of clearance-affected residents choosing to buy subsidized sale flats may vary depending on individual estate clearance plans. In previous clearance exercises involving Mei Tung Estate and Pak Tin Estate in 2017, around 10 to 15 percent of affected residents chose to buy subsidized sale flats.

If four percent of the 6,300 priority households choose to buy HOS flats, they would take up about 252 units. That figure is higher than the 200 large units available at Kai Yeung Court in Kai Tak, which is expected to be one of the most popular developments in this round.

Anthony Chiu Kwok-wai, executive director of the Federation of Public Housing Estates, said it could not be ruled out that most large units at Kai Yeung Court may be taken up by redevelopment tenants.

However, he said the quotas for the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Members, the Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme and single applicants are already fixed, meaning the impact would mainly fall on general family applicants.

Chiu said that as more estates undergo clearance in the future, the number of affected tenants eligible to buy subsidized sale flats in each phase may also increase.

He suggested that the Housing Authority could refer to the Housing Society’s approach by setting a cap on the quota allocated to clearance-affected households in each HOS sale exercise. The ratio could be adjusted according to the location and popularity of each development, while priority could also be arranged in batches based on tenants’ rehousing schedules.

Leung Man-kwong, a member of the Housing Authority and its Subsidised Housing Committee, said past experience showed that the proportion of clearance-affected tenants buying subsidized sale flats would not exceed 10 percent.

He said Shing Chi Court under GHS 2025 may be attractive to tenants affected by the clearance of Choi Hung Estate, and believed the impact on general applicants would be relatively small.

Leung added that allowing relocated residents to buy subsidized sale flats could encourage them to move out, making it difficult to restrict their housing choices. He said even as more redevelopment projects take place, the proportion of subsidized sale flats taken up by redevelopment residents is expected to remain low as overall supply increases.

The Housing Authority said residents affected by clearance have been given priority under various sales schemes, but their purchases have accounted for only a small share of the overall supply and had little impact on other applicants.

It added that around 12,000 HOS flats will be put up for sale annually over the next five years, significantly increasing home purchase opportunities.

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