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Housing

About 27,700 PRH units were allocated in 2019. Of these, about 20,300 were allocated to general applicants and to non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS, and about 4,400 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 880 households benefited from this scheme in 2019.

Special Arrangements for Elderly Residents

Elderly single people 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 one-person applicants was about three years at end-December. Families are encouraged to live with their elderly relatives in PRH estates.

Home Ownership

Subsidised Sale Flats

The government provides SSFS to address the home ownership aspirations of low- to middle- income families. In May, 4,871 new flats under Sale of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) Flats 2019 were launched for applications. Flat selection started in December. Some construction was completed in 2019 and the rest are expected to be completed in 2020-21. In view of the revised pricing mechanism, in November 2018, the Housing Authority further tightened the alienation restrictions of SSFs launched by the Housing Authority from 2019.

White Form Secondary Market Scheme

The Housing Authority regularised the White Form Secondary Market Scheme (WSM) in 2017 to address the home ownership aspirations of White Form applicants. WSM 2018 was launched in March 2018 with a quota of 2,500 flats, increased to 3,000 in March 2019.

Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme

The GSH aims to help relatively better-off Green Form applicants? move up the housing ladder. Application for the first regularised GSH project, Lai Tsui Court in Cheung Sha Wan, was launched in December 2018 and all 2,545 flats were sold out in June 2019. The Housing Authority endorsed the conversion of two PRH developments in Chai Wan and Tsing Yi to GSH projects in March, offering around 3,700 flats to receive applications by end-2019.

'Starter Homes' Pilot Scheme for Hong Kong Residents

The 'Starter Homes' (SH) pilot project aims to help higher-income families who are not eligible for the HOS and yet cannot afford private-sector housing to meet their home ownership

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

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

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