简体中文
More measures should be taken to help those low- and middle-income families shorten their waiting time to buy second-hand Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats, said Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA) members in May 6.
To enable the low- and middle-income families to buy their own homes before the completion of the new HOS flats, Hong Kong government has announced an interim scheme to allow eligible white form applicants, whose monthly income is no more than HK$30,000 and who are not living in public housing apartments, to buy second-hand HOS flats without paying premium. The first batch of 2,500 approval letters based on the priority list was issued in late May.
"We’ve got various vigorous supporters of this program, said Anthony Cheung, Chairman of HKHA in its annual special open meeting. He added that through the extended program the government could help more "sandwich class households to become real homebuyers and rejuvenate the second-hand HOS market.
Members of the HKHA suggest that the government should pay attention to the waiting list for public rental housing.
Ip Kwok-him said the authority has the financial ability to pay some rental allowance for those who are on the waiting list. "After all those grass-roots cannot afford to rent a private flat by themselves, he said, “The rental allowance could be treated as a transition measure, which helps them reduce pressure and improve living environment.
Wong Kwok-kin, another member of the HKHA suggested that the government accelerate the rate of rebuilding public housing property. “As the number of people waiting for public rental housing continues to increase in recent years, the government needs to raise the target for the construction of public housing flats to 30,000 units per year, he said.
According to the HKHA, there were about 220,000 applicants for public rental housing at end-March and the government’s objective is to keep the average waiting time for general waiting list applicants at around three years.
