The Government today invited public tenders for a private residential site at Yau Kom Tau in Tsuen Wan for developing a project involving Starter Homes for Hong Kong Residents (SH).

The tender invitation will serve to implement the measure to allocate land in the 2023-24 Land Sale Programme for developing SH projects as announced in the 2022 Policy Address.

The project’s developer is required to sell all the flats developed on the lot as SH units at 80% of market prices to people who meet the eligibility criteria.

The developer shall provide not less than 1,940 flats on the lot, each with a minimum saleable area of 26 sq m or around 280 sq ft. In addition, at least 70% of all the units should be no smaller than 34.8 sq m or around 375 sq ft. 

Eligible applicants should be Hong Kong residents who have lived in the city for seven years and must never have owned any residential property in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, they should have income falling between the income limits for White Form (WF) applicants for the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) and 30% above such limits. Their assets should also not exceed the limit of 30% above the HOS asset limits for WF applicants.

The Government will determine the detailed eligibility criteria prior to the sale of the SH units by the developer according to the prevailing circumstances.

As the SH units are subject to alienation restrictions, owners of such units cannot sell or let them in the first five years after purchase.

After the first five years, owners must pay a premium to the Government to remove the alienation restrictions before they can sell or let their units in the open market.

The tender invitation will close on August 18.