Grants for 'green' renovations in pipeline
Fresh subsidies may be offered to help owners of old residential buildings install more environmentally friendly facilities.
The additional payments are being considered by the Housing Society as part of an upgrade to its two-year-old Building Maintenance Incentive Scheme. The programme offers subsidies equal to 10 per cent of a project's cost, with a maximum of HK$3,000 per household, for buildings more than 20 years old with an owners' corporation and less than 200 flats.
Property management director Wong Kit-loong said the society was considering subsidies to install 'green' facilities such as electricity boxes that save power. He said details of the changes to the programme would be announced in two months.
The programme was launched with two other schemes - one that helps set up owners' corporations at private residential blocks with subsidies up to HK$3,000, and the other helping families repair their flats with interest-free loans capped at HK$50,000.
HK$300 million is allocated annually to the programmes, and of the HK$500 million used so far this year, HK$70 million was accounted for by subsidies.
The society has helped the owners of 361 buildings set up corporations in the past two years, approving 353 applications for building renovations with an average subsidy of HK$150,000.
Some 403 flat owners also received interest-free loans averaging HK$20,000 for renovations.
However, the reluctance of some elderly owners to get involved in the scheme has been an obstacle.
'Many of them didn't want to be involved anymore when they had to sign papers,' said Yu Chun, the society's general manager for property management.
Ms Yu said the society had asked centres for the elderly to refer more cases that could be assisted by the programme.
The society would continue to set up consultation centres in older districts, with its eighth due to open next month in Yau Ma Tei. Volunteer lawyers and engineers would provide free advice twice a week to residents interested in the programmes.
