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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Secretary for Transport and Housing (STH), Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, at a media session after attending the 䩕Joy and Harmony in Public Housing Estates蒅 ceremony to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region this afternoon (Aug 4):
Reporter : Could you like to repeat that in English please ?
STH : I notice that there are some views expressed about the prospect of the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS). Now I will like to make clear that it is the policy direction of the new administration to bring Home Ownership Scheme units into the public housing strategy. Public housing ladder will comprise public rental housing as the foundation to cater for the needs of our low income families as well as HOS to cater for those young families who will like to acquire home ownership but cannot afford it in the private market. But of course the long term housing strategy will not only look at public housing. It will also look at the private market. We want to make sure that the overall housing market will develop in a smooth and stable manner.
Reporter : Can you comment more on your 5,000 policy scheme ? I know that there have been some reports that after 2016 and 2017, those can expire within three years? Can you comment on it ?
STH : At the moment the reason why we are launching this new initiative to allow a maximum annual number of 5,000 white form applicants to buy Home Ownership Scheme flats without premium payment in the secondary market is because the new HOS units will only come out in 2016/17. So in the meanwhile we recognize the need of some white form residents for home ownership but of course beyond 2016/17 we have to look at the situation again. We reckon that the annual quota of 5,000 is a figure that could be absorbed by the market bearing in mind that at the moment there are over 250,000 HOS units without premium paid so of course we have to monitor the supply, we have to monitor the actual demand as well. This we will do early next year when the relaxation scheme comes out.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)
Ends/Saturday, August 4, 2012
Issued at HKT 16:44
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