TNAG-0669-FCO40-818-Policy-on-housing-and-resettlement-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 80

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On the same subject of the home ownership

scheme, Mr. Bremridge was worried lest we forget the importance of producing attractive and marketable flats. I am glad to be able to reassure him that the Working Party on Home Ownership did in fact identify this as a very important part of the scheme. I can assure him that the Housing Authorit will strive to design schemes that will be as attractive as any produced by good private developers. And, as regards the marketing of flats, I am happy to say that the Authority has, among its Unofficial Members, men of considerable experience in the property field on whose advice it can draw.

Mr. Cheong-Leen touched on a major issue when he suggested that the length of the ban on resale of these flats should be extended from five to seven or eight years to avoid abuse or speculation. There is certainly plenty of room for disagreement on what period would be fair both to the buyers and to the community, while remaining realistic to enforce. However, anything more rigorous could well make the scheme much less attractive to buyers, and it was for these reasons that the Executive Council recently advised that a five year period should be adopted.

Mr. Lobo referred to the possibility of the Housing Authority requiring its better-off tenants to apply I have no doubt for flats under the home ownership scheme. that the Authority will give every encouragement to its more prosperous tenants to join the home ownership scheme, and many enquiries from tenants of existing estates have already been received. One of the recommendations by the Working Party on Home Ownership is that tenants of public housing estates who surrender their tenancies should be treated as a special category. Every flat thus vacated will mean one more rented flat for a less prosperous family in need of public housing.

/Mr. Lobo

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