ENG-2018 — Page 233

12

Housing

About 30,200 PRH units were allocated in 2018. Of the total, about 23,500 were allocated to general applicants and to non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS, and about 4,300 to existing tenants for various types of transfers. The rest were allocated to other categories, such as applicants for compassionate rehousing and families affected by the government's clearance actions, fire, natural disasters and emergencies.

Applicants may be allocated PRH earlier by opting for less popular flats under the Express Flat Allocation Scheme. About 660 households benefited from this scheme in 2018.

Special Arrangements for Elderly Residents

Elderly singles can apply for PRH under the Single Elderly Persons Priority Scheme, and can share a flat with unrelated elderly people under the Elderly Persons Priority Scheme. These schemes grant priority to eligible applicants over family applicants. The average waiting time for elderly singles was about 2.9 years in end-December. Families are encouraged to live with their elderly relatives in PRH estates.

Home Ownership

Subsidised Sale Flats

The government provides SSFs in response to the home ownership aspirations of low- to middle-income families. In March, 4,431 new flats under Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) 2018 were offered for sale. Then in June, the Chief Executive announced a revised HOS pricing policy, according to which the Housing Authority approved the revised selling prices in July, tightened alienation restrictions of the HOS 2018 flats, and reopened the sale exercise for additional applications in October. Flat selection will start in February 2019 and construction is expected to be completed from 2018-19 to 2020-21.

Separately, in a Housing Society presale in June, all 620 flats were sold.

White Form Secondary Market Scheme

Regularised in 2017, this scheme aims to address the home ownership aspirations of White Form applicants. White Form Secondary Market Scheme 2018 was launched in March 2018 with a quota of 2,500.

Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme

The GSH aims to help relatively better-off Green Form applicants' move up the housing ladder. Applications started in December for the first regularised GSH project, the 2,545-flat Lai Tsui Court in Cheung Sha Wan, attracting over 40,000 applications.

6

White Form applicants are households that are not PRH tenants and meet the eligibility criteria for buying SSFs.

7

Green Form applicants are mainly PRH tenants and PRH applicants who have passed the detailed eligibility vetting and obtained a Green Form Certificate.

183