A housing loan scheme has been scrapped and the income limit for another cut in an overhaul to take account of plunging property prices.
The six-year-old sandwich class plan, put on hold in October, has been abolished, while applicants for the home starter package must now earn $60,000 or less a month, down from $70,000.
A third scheme, the Housing Authority's Home Purchase Loan Scheme, remains unchanged. It aims to help low-income public tenants buy flats.
Secretary for Housing Dominic Wong Shing-wah said the overhaul would provide clearly distinguished streams for subsidised home loan applicants.
The revised Home Starter Loan Scheme would have duplicated the now obsolete sandwich-class plan, which had loaned $2.7 billion to 5,700 families, he said.
'Owing to the significant adjustment in property prices during the past year and the need to adhere to the principle of affordability, we have decided to reduce the upper income limit of the Home Starter Loan Scheme,' he said.
'Under present market conditions, and given that many potential Sandwich Class Housing Loan Scheme applicants can apply under the Home Starter Loan Scheme, a separate scheme for the sandwich class no longer serves a useful purpose.' Members of the property sector welcomed the decision but thought more changes should have been made, particularly to the annual quotas of 4,500 home purchase and 6,000 home starter loans.