The Hong Kong authorities will start accepting applications from April 30 for the sale of subsidized flats under its Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme (GSH) and the White Form Secondary Market Scheme (WSM) for the year 2025.
Eligible applicants may submit an online application or a paper application either in person or by post from 8 am on April 30 until 7 pm on May 20, the Housing Authority (HA) said in an announcement on Wednesday.
“To streamline application arrangements for the convenience of applicants, HOS 2025, GSH 2025 and WSM 2025 will be launched together,” said an HA spokesman.
There will be a supply of almost 8,000 units in six projects for the sale of HOS and GSH in this batch.
The HOS 2025 flats include about 7,000 flats in five new HOS developments located in Kai Tak, Kam Tin, Tseung Kwan O, Ping Shan and Tung Chung, with saleable areas ranging from about 26.1 square meters to about 52 sq m.
The prices for HOS 2025 flats have been set at 30-percent discount from their assessed market values, with selling prices in the five new HOS developments ranging from about HK$1.5 million to about HK$4.8 million.
Meanwhile, flats for sale under GSH 2025 include over 800 new flats from the new GSH development in Kowloon Bay, Shing Chi Court. Their saleable areas range from about 26 sq m to about 43.6 sq m. Also, a new batch of recovered Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) flats will be offered for sale under GSH 2025.
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With the discount for GSH 2025 set at 40 percent from the assessed market values, the selling prices of flats in the new GSH development range from about HK$1.68 million to HK$3.54 million.
According to the HA, the list prices of unsold TPS flats in the 39 estates range from about HK$0.16 million to HK$1.37 million, and discounts range from 79 percent to 83 percent of the assessed market values. However, the final price range will depend on the recovered TPS flats up for sale under the sales exercise.
A series of measures have been planned to encourage residents to move up the housing ladder, including allocation of an extra ballot number to young family applicants and young one-person applicants aged below 40 with White Form (WF) status opting to join the Youth Scheme (HOS).
To provide one-person applicants with a reasonable opportunity to purchase, the HA has set a quota of 700 new HOS flats under HOS 2025 and 100 new GSH flats under GSH 2025 for one-person applicants.
An extra ballot number will also be allocated to applicants who failed to purchase a subsidized sale flat (SSF) in the last two consecutive sale exercises of the same type of SSF. The HOS and GSH will be conducted separately, the HA added.
To encourage public rental housing (PRH) tenants to purchase SSFs, the quota allocation ratio between Green Form and WF will be increased from 40:60 to 50:50.
Meanwhile, the alienation restriction period of new SSFs put up for sale in the open market will be shortened from 15 years to 10 years from the date of the first assignment.
The WSM quota will be increased by 1,000 to 7,000, which includes 2,000 quotas for young applicants aged below 40, while the remaining 5,000 are ordinary quotas.
The HA has separately set a quota of 2,800 new HOS flats under HOS 2025 and 350 new GSH flats under GSH 2025 for family applicants applying under the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Members and the Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme for ballot and priority flat selection.
The HA spokesman said the number of HOS flats offered for sale has increased from about 4,000 flats per year a few years ago to about 9,000 flats per year currently, averaging around 12,000 flats per year in the coming five years.
“With such a significant increase in supply, including some in urban areas such as Kowloon City, Kwun Tong and Sham Shui Po, the chances for applicants for subsidized sale flats to purchase a flat have been greatly enhanced,” added the spokesman.
