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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
The Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Housing), Mr Thomas Chan, and eight Housing Authority (HA) Members today (January 4) visited three surplus Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) Courts to take a first hand look at the conditions of the vacant flats.
Joined by Subsidized Housing Committee Members Miss Ip Chiu-ping and Mr James Wong Man-tai and Finance Committee Member Mr Joseph Fan Wai-kuen, the party first arrived at Yu Chui Court in Shatin where they toured around a two-bedroom flat and a three-bedroom flat.
After leaving Yu Chui Court, Mr Chan and his party went to Kingsford Terrace in Ngau Chi Wan where they saw a similar two-bedroom flat and a three-bedroom flat with a different layout and fitting standard as the flats were built by a private developer under the Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS).
The party learnt that Yu Chui Court with 1,489 unsold flats and Kingsford Terrace with 2,010 flats are proposed to be put up for sale in 2007 under a preliminary sale programme.
The Housing Department (HD) intends to carry out a defect rectification and maintenance programme at the surplus flats to bring them to a reasonable standard before sale, and a defects liability period (DLP) of one year from the date of assignment of individual flats is proposed to be offered for unsold flats.
However, no DLP will be offered for returned flats as purchasers would be allowed to view returned flats during flat selection process and the returned flats are sold on an "as is" basis in accordance with previous practice.
The HD also proposes to provide a 10-year (20 years for projects in Tin Shui Wai) structural safety guarantee (SSG) from the completion date of the development for the surplus flats. Having regard to some HA members' concerns, for unsold blocks/developments, the HD will consider proposing to HA to offer SSG of 10 years (20 years for projects in Tin Shui Wai) from the first sale of the unsold blocks.
Before concluding the visit, Mr Chan and the Members visited Yau Mei Court in Yau Tong where seven of the 12 blocks have already been sold to the Government for use as departmental quarters for the disciplined services and one block has been converted to public rental housing units. The remaining four blocks, comprising 1,480 flats are intended for sale from 2009 onwards.
Since the announcement of the repositioned housing policy in November 2002, some 5,020 flats in unsold HOS developments have been converted to public rental housing units and another 4,300 sold to Government for use as departmental quarters for the disciplined services.
As at the end of November in 2005, a total of 16,633 surplus HOS flats were held by HA. The surplus flats are proposed to be put up for sale from 2007 in two phases per year and around 2,000 to 3,000 flats per phase. It is expected that all the surplus flats will be launched for sale within three to four years.
HA Members joining today's visit include Ms Siu Yuen-sheung, Mr Wong Kwun, Mr Ip Kwok-him, Mr Patrick Lau Sau-shing, Dr Martin Kwong Hoi-chau, Mr Stephen Yip Moon-wah, Mr Stanley Wong Yuen-fai, and Mr Fred Li Wah-ming.
Ends/Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Issued at HKT 21:06
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