The Housing Authority forecasts that it will generate less income than expected for this financial year and post operating losses for three consecutive years from 2011-12.
Speaking after a meeting of the authority's finance committee on its budget yesterday, the committee's chairman, Stanley Wong Yuen-fai, said it projected a consolidated operating surplus of HK$36 million for this financial year, down from an earlier estimate of HK$582 million, because of the delay in selling flats under the Home Ownership Scheme.
In the previous financial year, the authority generated an operating surplus of HK$4.11 billion - mostly offset by investment losses.
Wong said the drop in income 'is mainly because we have offered fewer HOS units for sale because of the global financial crisis. A total of about 1,200 units will be sold this year, compared with the 4,000 flats planned earlier'.
The authority will make a net HK$1.47 billion from flat sales this year, after deducting the construction cost.
If it sells a further 3,600 flats in the next financial year - which begins in April - and then the remaining 400 units the year after, the authority could achieve an operating surplus of HK$461 million next year. However, its operating account would then show deficits in the following years, meaning that the authority would have to rely on its investments to maintain an overall surplus.
