Only 1 in 60 chance to win in Hongkongers' rush for subsidised flats
130,000 applications for 2,160 subsidised homes highlights how unaffordable city's housing has become for residents, say experts
Nearly 130,000 applications have been made for just 2,160 bargain flats on sale under Hong Kong's relaunched Home Ownership Scheme - that's more than the entire stock of 90,000 subsidised homes that the government plans to build in the next decade.
The massive response means only one out of 60 applicants will secure one of the flats, priced at 70 per cent of market value.
It is by far the biggest response to the scheme, which ran from 1977 to 2003 and was revived last year, when 66,000 families applied for 5,000 second-hand flats.
This next batch of flats are new builds and are not due to be completed until the financial year ending March 2017. Located in Sha Tin, Yuen Long, Tsuen Wan and Tsing Yi, they are priced between HK$1.87 million and HK$3.26 million.
The previous biggest rush for HOS flats came in the financial year ending in 1980, when one in 27 applicants was successful.
Housing experts said the popularity of the scheme since its inception demonstrated how the private property market was largely unaffordable for the general public. They warned that the administration's HOS construction target for the coming years would fall far short of demand.
"It is like a grand lucky draw. People find it very difficult to become homeowners unless they get a chance under the HOS," said Dr Lau Kwok-yu, a City University expert on housing policy and a member of the Housing Authority.
