Re-launching and enhancing the sales scheme for public rental housing units
Deputy President, first of all, I thank Mr CHAN Hok-fung for proposing the motion on “Re-launching and enhancing the sales scheme for public rental housing units” and the three Members for proposing their amendments, so that we can have another opportunity in this Council to discuss the sale of public rental housing (“PRH”) units. Although Secretary HO listed a host of problems just now to illustrate how difficult it will be to re-launch the sale of PRH units, I am in support of this general direction.
Housing has long been a difficult issue to the people of Hong Kong. Home ownership has been a long-standing aspiration of the general public, including the grass roots living in PRH estates. One year after our return to the motherland, the SAR Government launched the Tenants Purchase Scheme (“TPS”), with the aim of enabling PRH tenants to purchase at an affordable price the PRH flats they were living in, so as to make it easier for PRH tenants with a home-owning intention to get on board and increase the proportion of homeowners among Hong Kong people. I believe this has been the objective to date.
TPS was very well-received back then, with an average purchase rate as high as 78%. However, due to the fact that some residents still choose to rent the flats, the management problems of PRH flats under TPS have remained unresolved. In hindsight, the problem might not have persisted to the present day if more effort had been made on setting straight the details of the scheme back then. For example, in a PRH estate with four blocks of housing units, one block can be reserved for tenants who prefer not to buy their flats, while the remaining three blocks can be put up for sale. In any case, what is done is done. After 26 years of implementation, due to the long-standing management problems arisen from the mixed tenure, most of the TPS estates have become dilapidated with poor living environment and the value of the properties has been at a low level. The Secretary mentioned just now that the Hong Kong Housing Authority (“HKHA”) has set up a Maintenance Fund for each TPS estate. However, due to the failure of the Owners’ Corporations (“OCs”) to properly manage these estates, many flat owners have complained about OCs’ failure in protecting their interests. So far, this problem has remained unresolved.
Hence, at the Council Meeting on 31 May 2023, I moved a motion on “Facing up to the management and maintenance responsibilities of the Tenants Purchase Scheme units”, in a bid to urge the SAR Government to practically fulfil its responsibilities as the major owner and actively take part in estate management, so that both sold flats under TPS and rented flats can reach the same level of management.
According to the progress report on my motion submitted by the Housing Bureau last August, as the Secretary just said, HKHA has launched on a trial basis the sale of recovered TPS flats to eligible Green Form applicants under the Home Ownership Scheme (“HOS”) and Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme. According to what the Secretary just said, the first 800 flats were sold 100% and the second batch (of 500 flats) were sold 99%. I think this approach is quite well-received and deserves further exploration by the Housing Bureau for advancing it to the next level.
Given that the Government has recently withdrawn the “harsh measures” for the property market, coupled with interest rates remaining high, some potential buyers of HOS flats have switched to buying private flats, while others have put their home ownership plans on hold due to the high interest rates. As mentioned by the Secretary just now, there are 31 400 TPS flats unsold. Undoubtedly, TPS can provide an alternative option for the tenants living in PRH estates. However, as I have just said, the sale of PRH flats 26 years ago would not have led to the present situation if due consideration in the details had been given back then. I hope that even if this approach is adopted again for selling the recovered or unsold flats, due consideration should be given on how to minimize the chaos caused by a mixed tenure.
In addition, given that consideration is being given to re-launch TPS, the authorities should consider selecting a few estates with good estate management as a model. If the management of all 39 PRH estates is in such a mess, definitely few people will be willing to buy these flats. But if a few estates with good management can be selected as model estates, I believe more prospective buyers will be interested in TPS.
Deputy President, I so submit.