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HOS freeze spawns release of residential units 2.
Homes chief kept in dark on flats move 3.
Housing Society plans to build flats on mainland
1. HOS freeze spawns release of residential units
Two developers yesterday announced residential sales plans, indicating growing
confidence following the freeze on the release of new Home Ownership Scheme (HOS)
units to the market. Mid-sized developer UNI Holdings (0369) will launch two new
projects by the end of the year while China Overseas property Agency, a subsidiary
of China Overseas Land and Investment (0688) plans to relaunch the sale of 60
units at Tuen Mun without discounting prices. Karen Li Kan Fung-ling, UNI director
of corporate development, said the company had renewed confidence in future of
the local property market following the suspension of HOS sales by government.
However, the group did not plan to launch its projects at a faster pace. The moratorium
on all sales of HOS flats will be effective until next June, while sales of HOS
flats thereafter would be kept to just 9,000 units a year until 2005-2006. [Source:
HK-iMail, 6 September 2001] 2.
Homes chief kept in dark on flats move
Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and his two top officials made a dramatic snap decision
to suspend sales of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats on Monday, bypassing Secretary
for Housing Dominic Wong Shing-wah and executive councillors, an informed source
said. The first indication of the move is understood to have been a pre-dawn email
on Sunday from Chief Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to an
aide asking for a statement to be prepared for a news conference. Mr Tung, Mr
Tsang and Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung made the rushed decision
in response to intense pressure, not just from developers but also from legislators
and financially-battered home owners, the source said. Mr Tsang made the announcement
at 4pm on Monday, flanked by Mr Wong and Director of Housing Tony Miller, neither
of whom appeared to have been consulted before the announcement. No member of
the Executive Council, which is in summer recess until September 18, was involved
in the decision-making either. ``Mr Tsang told nobody until 5am on Sunday when
he sent an email to a close aide asking him to help draft a statement for Monday's
press conference,'' the source told Hong Kong iMail. Mr Tsang said on Monday the
announcement freezing HOS sales until next July had originally been planned to
be made in Mr Tung's Policy Address next month, but had been brought forward owing
to the seriousness of the situation. [Source:
HK-iMail, 6 September 2001] 3.
Housing Society plans to build flats on mainland
The Housing Society wants to build flats on the mainland as it searches for a
new role amid declining demand for public housing, its chief said yesterday. Chairman
Chung Shui-ming said the role of the society, a statutory body with a $20 billion
reserve and which produced about 2,000 subsidised flats last year, was diminishing.
"We need to explore new niches and have always managed to do so in the face of
major government policy changes," he said. "An increasing number of SAR citizens
are moving to live in Guangdong and we realise the good potential of the mainland
property market, which promises a lot of opportunities. The sale of two Housing
Society projects in Tuen Mun and Tseung Kwan O with 1,600 flats was also suspended
following the freeze on HOS. [Source:
SCMP, 6 September 2001]
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