ENG-1997 — Page 251

HOUSING

to outreaching services such as organising visits, talks and exhibitions on housing for the elderly, these centres provide comprehensive advisory services to residents affected by redevelopment of private buildings or urban renewal projects, and to applicants for public rental and Home Ownership Scheme flats. The authority also plans to set up Housing Information Centres in other districts that have a concentration of elderly residents in old private tenements to provide easy access to information on public housing.

Subsidised Home Ownership

Home Ownership Scheme and Private Sector Participation Scheme

The Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) and the supplementary Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS) were introduced in 1978 and 1979 respectively to provide flats for sale to lower and middle-income families and public rental tenants at prices well below market value. About 260 000 flats have so far been sold to eligible families. These include 84 404 flats produced under the PSPS which makes use of the resources of the private sector to produce flats for sale at subsidised prices. Private- sector applicants are not allowed to own domestic property within two years prior to the submission of their applications and are subject to a household income limit of $30,000 a month. These restrictions, however, do not apply to public rental tenants, residents of temporary housing areas and cottage areas managed by the HA, households displaced by the clearance of squatter areas for development, natural disaster victims and junior civil servants.

About 41 per cent of the families who bought property under the schemes were public rental tenants. They have surrendered their rental flats in return for allocation to those in greater need. Priority is also extended to prospective tenants so that they can bypass public rental housing. During the year, 6 174 flats and 14 700 flats were sold under the HOS and the PSPS schemes. The schemes were over-subscribed by nine times.

Resale restrictions on HOS and PSPS flats

Revised resale restrictions for HOS and PSPS flats came into effect in June 1997. Since then, 737 transactions have been completed and 2 211 applications for sale and 1 265 applications for purchase have been received. A flat owner can resell the flat:

·

⚫ in the first three years from first assignment, to the HA at the original purchase

price;

•

·

after the first three years from first assignment, to the HA at prevailing HOS or PSPS prices;

after 10 years from first assignment, in the open market, subject to the payment of a premium; or

• from the fourth year onwards from first assignment, to a current or prospective public rental tenant, at a negotiated price.

Allowing HOS and PSPS flat owners to sell the flats to a current or prospective public rental tenant will create a limited form of secondary market for HOS and PSPS flats. After resale, the new owner will be required to surrender his existing public rental flat (if he is a public rental tenant), or to forego the right to be allocated a public rental flat (if he is a prospective public rental flat tenant). The seller will not

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