Hong Kong’s Housing Authority will roll out two schemes in September to promote more efficient use of subsidised homes by allowing owners to lease properties without paying a premium and encouraging elderly owners to swap properties for a smaller or remote flat. The two initiatives received the green light from the subsidised housing committee of…
Hong Kong’s largest non-profit organisation, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, will offer a HK$30,000 (US$3,827) relocation allowance to victims of the deadly Tai Po fire who agree to transfer ownership of their properties to the government, its chief executive has said, with the scheme expected to benefit about 1,000 households. Albert So Yau-on also…
Hong Kong’s public housing conversation is often dominated by a single anxious question: how long do you have to wait for a home? Today, the answer is starting to change. The average waiting time for a general applicant for subsidised public rental housing has fallen to 4.7 years, a shift that feels small on paper…
Thirty-five families living in Hong Kong’s subdivided units have faced eviction in the two and a half months since the government rolled out a new regime to eradicate substandard shoebox homes, according to housing authorities. Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin also said on Wednesday that another 40 subdivided flat households from Yee Wa Building…
Owners at Wang Chi House, the only block spared in Hong Kong’s fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court, have until October 15 to finalise the sale of homes under a government buyback scheme – provided more than 75 per cent of them indicate their intention to sell by the end of next month. However, the tight timeline…
The average waiting time for long and short-term general applicants for subsidised public rental housing in Hong Kong had fallen to 4.7 years as of March, authorities said, marking the first time it has dropped below five years under the current administration. Despite the decrease in the “composite figure”, which included light public flats, the…
Hong Kong authorities have formally issued buy-back offer letters to homeowners at the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, giving them until 31 August to decide whether to accept a government buy-back offer under a long-term resettlement plan. The letters were sent to all homeowners on Thursday, including those who had previously said they…
Hong Kong lawmakers have called for a rethink of a government scheme to develop homes for the elderly, days after the city’s second largest public housing provider revealed it would stop building homes targeting senior residents for the coming 10 years. Lawmaker Andrew Lam Siu-lo of the Legislative Council’s housing panel said on Monday that…
Hong Kong authorities may widen support to cover more younger elderly residents to bolster protection, the welfare minister has said, calling current efforts to identify at-risk seniors “just the beginning” as the city reels from two tragedies in a week. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han told the South China Morning Post that…
The competition could intensify at tenders for Hong Kong’s residential plots as developers replenish their land banks amid a recovering property market, with the tug of war testing their financial discipline as they bid for parcels at a “noticeable premium”, according to S&P Global Ratings, though some analysts believe that the return of confidence is…