The Housing Authority's Subsidised Housing Committee today approved three measures to enhance arrangements for subsidised sale flats (SSF) to encourage young people to move up the housing ladder.

Starting from the upcoming White Form Secondary Market Scheme to be launched in the first quarter of this year, the quota will increase by 1,500 to 6,000. The additional 1,500 quotas are designated for a newly-introduced youth scheme and will be allocated to young applicants aged below 40.

The existing 4,500 ordinary quotas under the secondary market scheme will be allocated to eligible applicants who have higher priority, regardless of whether they have opted to join the youth scheme. The additional 1,500 quotas will be allocated to eligible applicants who have opted to join the youth scheme according to a subsequent priority sequence.

The additional quotas comprise 1,350 allocated to young family applicants and 150 allocated to young one-person applicants.

The second measure concerns the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS). From the next HOS sale exercise, an extra ballot number will be allocated to young family applicants and young one-person applicants aged below 40 with White Form status to raise their chances of purchasing a flat.

To prevent double benefits, this measure is not applicable to young family applicants with White Form status who join the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Members or Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme.

The third measure covers the HOS and Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme and starts from the upcoming sale exercises. An extra ballot number will be allocated to applicants who have made repeated attempts.

With reference to the HOS figures of 2023, nearly 60% of the applicants had applied for previous HOS sale exercises but were unsuccessful in purchasing a flat. The committee therefore approved the allocation of an extra ballot number to applicants who failed to purchase a SSF in the last two consecutive sale exercises of the same type of SSF to increase their chances of a purchase.

The Housing Authority said the eligibility criteria for HOS 2024, including the income and asset limits as well as restrictions on domestic property ownership in Hong Kong, will continue to be applicable to the White Form Secondary Market Scheme 2024.

The income and asset limits for family applicants are set at $60,000 per month and $1.23 million, while the income and asset limits for one-person applicants are set at $30,000 per month and $615,000.