Flats galore set to spark hos interest

More than 9,000 flats will be up for grabs under the Home Ownership Scheme starting July 31, the Housing Authority said yesterday.

Successful applicants can choose from 9,154 HOS flats at Kai Yuet Court in Kai Tak, On Ying, On Lai and On Wah courts in Kwun Tong, Siu Tsui Court in Tuen Mun and Long Tin Court in Yuen Long at 38 percent discounts from assessed market values, with prices ranging from HK$1.49 million at Long Tin to HK$4.94 million at Kai Yuet.

Some 50 HOS flats in Ma On Shan, Diamond Hill, Tung Chung and Sha Tin left over from 2020 and last year will also be available.

The HOS and the White Form Secondary Market Scheme, which allows eligible people to buy second-hand HOS flats without a land premium, will open for applications for two weeks, starting from 8 am on July 31 until 7 pm on August 14.

The application fee for the two schemes is HK$270 and HK$230, and people applying for both schemes will have to pay HK$500.

Balloting exercises for the two schemes will be held in the fourth quarter and successful applicants can select flats in the first quarter of 2024.

People can apply for both schemes through one application, but the balloting will be conducted separately, the authority said, adding that application forms and sales leaflets of the HOS flats will be available for the public starting Monday.

The authority said the quota for the White Form Scheme will be set at 4,500 with the allocation ratio for family and single applicants to be kept at 9:1. Its eligibility criteria will be the same as those for HOS White Form applicants.

But the authority will tighten the criteria for green form applicants - mainly public housing residents - to purchase subsidized sales flats.

"Public Rental Housing tenants and Rental Estate tenants of the Housing Society who apply to purchase subsidized sale flats as green form applicants should not have owned domestic properties in Hong Kong during the period from 24 months preceding the closing date for submitting the application up to the time of purchase," a spokesman said.

Well-off tenants - known as fixed-term licensees - will no longer be allowed to purchase HOS flats as green-form applicants.

Under the well-off tenants policy, people whose incomes and assets exceed the authority's limit can apply for temporary stays in public housing for not more than 12 months.

They will no longer be allowed to apply through the green-form process but they can still purchase subsidized flats as white-form applicants, the authority said.