The government should not revive the Home Ownership Scheme just because the latest demand for subsidised flats left over from the shelved programme was massive, the head of a Housing Authority panel said.
Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, who is also an executive councillor, made the comment yesterday after the third phase of selling the surplus flats was found to have been oversubscribed more than six times.
The authority has received more than 24,000 applications for 3,052 flats since applications opened on February 28.
Professor Cheung, chairman of the subsidised housing committee, attributed the demand to the rising property market and low mortgage interest rates. But this should not automatically prompt the government to relaunch the scheme, which was suspended in 2002 as part of efforts to revive the stagnating property market, he said at the drawing of ballots to choose successful applicants.
He said the HOS was part of government policy which should be decided by public consensus.
There have been calls to revive the scheme as the recovering market is putting flats out of the reach of middle-income buyers, who were its original target.
