ENG-2004 — Page 270

224 Housing

households which acquired their own flats under the HOS, the Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS) or the HALS, returned their public rental housing flats to the HKHA.

Allocation

In 2004, 32 840 rental flats were allocated by the HKHA and the HKHS to various categories of applicants. Of these, 13 635 were new and 19 205 refurbished: 70.44 per cent were allocated to waiting list applicants, 3.47 per cent to tenants affected by the HKHA's Comprehensive Redevelopment Programme, 1.27 per cent to families affected by clearances, 1.68 per cent to junior civil servants, 23.15 per cent to tenants sitting for transfers including overcrowding relief, and the remainder to victims of fire and natural disasters and compassionate cases recommended by the Social Welfare Department.

Flats are allocated in accordance with the order of registration and applicants' choices of district. Applicants are required to satisfy comprehensive means tests (covering income and assets), not to own any domestic property and to meet the residency rule in Hong Kong before being admitted into public rental housing. To speed up the letting of some less popular flats, the HKHA launched the Express Flat Allocation Scheme and invited all eligible applicants on the waiting list to select a flat from among the vacant flats with prolonged vacancy periods in all districts. During the year, 1 260 households were successfully rehoused under this scheme.

Divestment of Commercial Properties

To concentrate on its primary mission of providing subsidised public rental housing to people in need, the HKHA announced a plan to divest its retail and car parking facilities through public offering of a Real Estate Investment Trust (Link REIT). Proceeds from the divestment will help the HKHA to tide over its financial difficulties resulting from the cessation of the HOS, thus allowing it to pursue various measures to improve its finances in the longer term. The Link REIT was put out for public offer in December 2004. Two PRH tenants applied for a judicial review of the HKHA'S power to divest one day before the close of the public offer period. Although the HKHA's power to divest has been affirmed by both the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal, it could not achieve finality on the legal challenge before the scheduled time of listing. The HKHA therefore decided that it would prepare for a relaunch of the initial public offering after conclusion of all legal proceedings.

Home Ownership

Sale of Subsidised Flats

Since 1978, more than 423 0004 subsidised sale flats have been sold to households of eligible families/persons at discounted prices under the Government's

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Including flats sold by the HKHS. Of the 423 000 flats sold since 1978, 50 700 flats can be traded in the open market as at end December 2004. These flats are not counted as subsidised sale flats under the current definition.

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