ENG-2020 — Page 226

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Housing

PRH Allocation

General applicants are allocated PRH according to the order of their registrations, family size and choice of districts. For non-elderly one-person applicants, priority under the QPS is determined by age, waiting time and whether the person already lives in PRH. All applicants must meet the PRH eligibility criteria.

About 19,500 PRH units were allocated in 2020. Of these, about 13,400 were allocated to general applicants and to non-elderly one-person applicants under the QPS, and about 3,600 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 960 households benefited from this scheme in 2020.

Special Arrangements for Elderly Residents

Elderly single people can apply for PRH under the Single Elderly Persons Priority Scheme, or 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 3.4 years at year end. Families are encouraged to live with their elderly relatives in PRH estates.

Home Ownership

Subsidised Sale Flats

The government provides SSFs to enable low- to middle-income families to own their own homes. In June, all 4,871 new flats under Sale of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) Flats 2019 were sold, and in September applications started for around 7,000 new flats under the 2020 scheme.

White Form Secondary Market Scheme

The White Form Secondary Market Scheme (WSM) addresses the home ownership aspirations of White Form applicants. The quota for WSM 2020 (launched in September along with Sale of HOS Flats 2020) was raised from 3,000 to 4,500.

Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme

The GSH aims to help relatively better-off Green Form applicants' move up the housing ladder. Flat selection was completed in December for two GSH developments in Chai Wan and Tsing Yi, converted from PRH projects, offering around 3,700 flats for sale.

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

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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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