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1. HOS flats may go private

2. HOS flats may be sold to developers or rented

1. HOS flats may go private

About 12,000 vacant subsidised flats may be sold to private developers during the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) sales freeze. This possibility, raised yesterday by Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, was swiftly dismissed as unworkable by Housing Authority members. Speaking on two radio programmes yesterday ahead of his trip to the United States this week, Mr Tsang said the government was seeking ways to reduce the number of surplus HOS flats resulting from the freeze and a reduction in sales from 20,000 to 9,000 when the moratorium ends next June.

[Source: HK-iMail, 5 September 2001]

2. HOS flats may be sold to developers or rented

Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) blocks left vacant by the suspension of sales may be rented out or sold to private developers, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said yesterday. During two radio phone-in programmes to explain the decision to freeze sales of HOS flats for at least 10 months, he said: "We could either turn the HOS flats that we build with the private sector into rental flats or sell the whole block [to private developers]." About 43,500 HOS flats are under construction. A maximum of 9,000 flats are to be sold each year until 2005-06 after the resumption of sales in July next year.

[Source: SCMP, 5 September 2001]