CE to announce ‘Starter Homes’ scheme

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor stressed on Wednesday that a “Starter Homes” scheme — which aims to provide affordable flats to the city’s first-time homebuyers — will be rolled out in her first Policy Address next month.

Speaking after attending a housing forum, Lam said the scheme will mainly target young Hong Kong permanent residents. These will be people who are considered too affluent to apply for flats under the government-subsidized Home Ownership Scheme but cannot afford properties in the private market.

Those who own any properties or have purchased government subsidized flats will not be eligible for the scheme.

To build these flats, Lam said the government will seek land resources other than those intended for public housing and government-subsidized housing.

Pricing and detailed eligibility requirements for the scheme will be unveiled in the Policy Address, Lam added. She said the flats will also be “modest” in size.

Currently, a four-person household with monthly income up to HK$52,000 is eligible for a government-subsidized flat which they will enjoy full ownership of after living in for five years and paying back a premium to the government. This is because the flats were sold to them at a discounted price.

Alice Mak Mei-kuen, chairman of the Panel on Housing of the Legislative Council, suggested the cost of Starter Homes should be based on median incomes of young families covered by the scheme.

In addition, she proposed restrictions on reselling these flats should be tougher to prevent any speculation.

options

The idea, first mentioned in Lam’s election manifesto, attempts to ease the stress on young people by offering them affordable housing. This comes at a time when Hong Kong has an acute housing supply shortage and is one of the world’s least affordable property markets.

Lam was confident young families eligible for Starter Homes could buy private properties after one or two years living in Starter Homes.

In addition to this new scheme to tackle the housing problem, Lam appointed a 30-strong Task Force on Land Supply to help the government develop strategies to boost availability of developa- ble land.

The task force had its first meeting on Wednesday. Stanley Wong Yuen-fai, chairman of the Housing Authority’s Subsidized Housing Committee who chairs the task force, said after the three-hour meeting that 12 land supply options were put forward at the meeting. These included developing land on brownfield sites and using land on the periphery of country parks.

Wong said there will be no set priority for discussion of the 12 options; the task force will work to a tight schedule to present the pros and cons of the 12 options for a large-scale public consultation.

He estimated that public consultation on different land supply options will be organized in the first two months of next year. The task force will put forward preliminary land supply suggestions to the government at the end of the third quarter or beginning of the fourth quarter next year.