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Housing
The HKHA has an ongoing 'Estate Improvement Programme' to provide a good living environment for its tenants. It also has a Lift Addition Programme to improve accessibility within estates and beside existing footbridges.
Allocation
In 2014, about 27,400 PRH flats were allocated to various re-housing categories by the HKHA. About 11,600 of these were new flats and about 15,800 were refurbished flats. Of the total, about 63 per cent were allocated to general applicants and non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS, about 26 per cent to sitting tenants for various types of transfers, about 7 per cent under Compassionate Rehousing, about 3 per cent to junior civil servants and pensioners, less than 1 per cent to families affected by estate clearance and the remainder provided to those affected by squatter clearances, removal of rooftop structures, fire, natural disasters and emergencies, and other applicants.
Flats are allocated to general applicants according to the order of their registration and their choice of districts. For non-elderly one-person applicants, allocation is based on the QPS in which priority is determined by the applicant's age at the time of registration, waiting time and whether he or she has been residing in PRH. All applicants need to meet the HKHA's residence requirement and must satisfy the Comprehensive Means Test and the Domestic Property Test.
To speed up the allocation of the less popular flats, the HKHA pools these for selection by eligible PRH applicants under the Express Flat Allocation Scheme. About 1,330 households were allocated PRH flats under this scheme in 2014.
The HKHA also offers accommodation to people whose squatter huts or rooftop structures are cleared by the government, provided they meet certain criteria, and about 320 households were rehoused in 2014.
Home Ownership
Home Ownership Scheme
In response to the aspirations of low to middle-income families for home ownership, the HOS is part of the government's housing policy. The first batch of 2,160 newly built HOS units in five developments are expected to be completed in 2016-17, and pre-sale was launched at the end of 2014.
In mid-2014, the HKHA launched the sale of 85 HOS flats in Tin Lee Court, converted from a PRH block in Lung Tin Estate at Tai O, Lantau Island. There were some 12,400 applications and all flats were sold in September.
The HKHA introduced an Interim Scheme in January 2013 to allow 5,000 eligible White Form (WF) applicants (ie households who are not PRH tenants and meet the HA's eligibility criteria for subsidised sale flats) to purchase flats without premium paid in the HOS Secondary Market. As at December 2014, over 2,300 WF applicants have achieved home ownership through this scheme. In response to demand, the HKHA decided in November to provide an additional
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