Subsidized flats

IN response to the aspirations of low- to middle-income families for home ownership, the Hong Kong SAR Government provides subsidized flats as part of its housing policy.

The first batch of 2,160 new House Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats in five developments were sold by August 2015. In his 2015 Policy Address, Leung Chun-ying, chief executive of Hong Kong SAR, announced that two sites in Tseung Kwan O and Tuen Mun had been set aside for the Housing Society to develop around 600 subsidized flats.

An interim scheme launched by the Housing Authority in 2013 allows 5,000 eligible White Form applicants (i.e. households who are not public rental housing tenants and meet the Housing Authority’s eligibility criteria for subsidized flats) to buy flats in the HOS secondary market without paying the premium.

More than 2,400 applicants achieved home ownership in the first round, which was completed in April 2015. The Housing Authority rolled out a new round of the scheme in August with a quota of 2,500. It received about 43,900 applications and issued approval letters to successful applicants in early 2016.

Private-sector housing

To ensure the healthy and stable development of the residential market, the government monitors the residential property market and is alerted to risks of a property bubble. To this end, it has implemented various measures, including increasing land supply, combating speculative activities, managing demand for homes, increasing the transparency of transactions and preventing excessive expansion in mortgage lending. To address the overheating property market, the government enhanced the Special Stamp Duty and introduced a Buyer’s Stamp Duty in October 2012, and doubled the ad valorem stamp duty in February 2013. These demand-side management measures aim to combat speculative activities, ensure the healthy and stable development of the property market, and accord priority to the home ownership needs of Hong Kong permanent residents in the midst of tight housing supply.