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Public housing tenants are eyeing the biggest flats under a pilot scheme for government-subsidised apartments, with some complaining that the smallest units on offer are too similar to cubicle homes.
The857 flats in San Po Kongin east Kowloon, which are open only to public housing tenants for application, are part of the first wave of offerings under theGreen Form Subsidised Home Ownership Pilot Scheme.
The flats, ranging in size from 192 sq ft to 494 sq ft, are being sold for between HK$940,000 and HK$2.98 million, or at a 40 per cent discount on the market price.
“I think now is the right time. Property prices are bound to go up, especially as more mainland Chinese people buy up flats,” potential buyer Cheung Kam-hon, 23, said.
“But we are only interested in the biggest flats. A hundred square feet would be too small [for our family of four], it wouldn’t be any different than living in subdivided units,” he added.
Cheung was one of many who came to look at the show flat models that were on display for the first time.
Even before 8am on Tuesday, dozens were already queueing to pick up an application form at the Housing Authority customer service centre in Lok Fu.
Applications opened a day after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying proposedlowering flat prices by pegging them to construction costs.
Wilson Chan, who was at the centre with his mother, echoed Cheung’s sentiments.
“It’s a good price for a flat in the urban area, and transportation is convenient. But we’re only going to choose the biggest flats. There’s no point in choosing one that’s the same size as the public housing unit we’re living in now,” Chan said.
The largest flats have two rooms and one living room, while the smallest ones are being sold as studio units.
Winnie Li, another potential buyer, said it was a good long-term investment since the flat would be close to a new MTR station in Kai Tak, a new development area.
Kai Tak MTR station is being built as part of the railway giant’s newextension from Sha Tin to Central, and is expected to be completed by 2019.
However, some still had reservations, given that the project was a pilot scheme.
The plan, initiated by the chief executive in his 2015 policy address, aims to vacate more public housing flats and reduce waiting periods, which have exceeded four years.
“Seeing as we’re the government’s laboratory rats for this project, the worst case scenario is that they decide to offer further discounts on future batches. I wouldn’t be so happy about that then,” Cheung said.
Stanley Wong Yuen-fai, chairman of the subsidised housing committee under the Housing Authority, said the committee would not know if the pilot scheme would continue as part of the city’s long-term housing policy until a review, to be done by early 2018, was completed.
“We would have to look at the popularity of the scheme, whether a 40 per cent discount is appropriate, and more importantly, whether public housing units are recycled in a more effective manner so the waiting time can be shortened,” Wong said.
(SCMP)
