Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Thursday afternoon announced a series of housing measures to help Hongkongers buy homes amid rising property prices.
Most of the measures involve increasing the supply of new flats to address rising demand in the short and medium term.
Leung said the rental option of the My Home Purchase Plan, a rent-or-buy programme to help those in the “sandwich class”, would be dropped, meaning some 5,000 new flats to be built over the few years would be sold directly.
The first batch consisting 1,000 flats in Tsing Yi would be available and open for application early next year, Leung said.
Some 800 unsold flats under the Home Ownership Scheme, mostly in Tin Shui Wai, would be put up for sale next year.
In the middle-term, Leung said 36 vacant government and community sites would be turned to residential use to provide about 11,900 public and private flats.
