Press Release

Housing Society Letting Scheme for Subsidised Sale Developments with Premium Unpaid will Soon Open Application for Tenant Households

Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) today announced that the “Letting Scheme for Subsidised Sale Developments with Premium Unpaid” (Letting Scheme) will soon open application for tenant households from 29 October (9:00am) to 16 November 2018 (5:30pm).

HKHS launched the Letting Scheme as a pilot scheme to help provide transitional homes (“T-Home”) with application for eligible owners commenced since mid-September.  The flats participating in the Letting Scheme are required to have two or more bedrooms.  The owner must retain at least one bedroom for self-occupation and the tenant shall not rent the entire flat from the owner.  Each rentable bedroom must be let in whole to one tenant household.  The kitchen and bathroom(s) in the flat (if the flat has two bathrooms, the bathroom in the ensuite shall be excluded) must be shared by the owner and the tenant household.  

Eligible tenant household applicants of the Letting Scheme include the following two categories: 

Category (1): Ordinary family (including single elderly household under Single Elderly Persons Priority Scheme) holding a valid Public Rental Housing (PRH) application number of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) and that application has been registered for 3 years or more (i.e. the date of PRH registration is 17 November 2015 or before) 
Category (2): Non-elderly one-person household holding a valid PRH application number of HA under the Quota and Points System and that application has been registered for 6 years or more (i.e. the date of PRH registration is 17 November 2012 or before)

The following criteria are also applicable to the above two categories of applicants: 

(1)    Applicants must be at least 18 years old on the closing date of application (i.e. 16 November 2018) and be listed as applicants in the application for HA PRH as mentioned above. 
(2)    The information of the applicant and all the persons (if any) listed in the application form must be the same as that of the application for HA PRH. 
(3)    The applicant and the person (if any) listed in the application form must comply with the existing policy and criteria for applying HA PRH (including but not limited to number of family members, income and asset). Anyone of them must not directly or indirectly own any residential property in Hong Kong or have not been allocated any PRH unit by the HA or HS at any time from the date of application for HA PRH to the issue of “Eligible-to-Rent Certificate” and the signing date of the tenancy agreement with an owner under the Scheme. 

Upon completion of vetting, “Eligible-to-Rent Certificate” will be issued to eligible tenant households for matching with owners holding “Eligible-to-Let Certificate” of their own accord, including with the assistance of licensed estate agent(s) in completing the tenancy procedure.  Such arrangement is similar to that of the secondary market of the existing subsidised sale developments, which has been an effectual practice.

The rent level is to be determined by the owner and the tenant household through their mutual agreement.  The prescribed tenancy agreement provided by HKHS must be used and signed by both the owner and the tenant household.  The signed tenancy agreement must be stamped by the owners who shall submit all necessary documents to the Rating and Valuation Department.  The stamp duty payment will be shared between the owner and the tenant household.  Meanwhile, both the owner and the tenant household must submit the “Notification of the Execution of Tenancy Agreement” to HKHS within two weeks after signing the tenancy agreement.

The tenancy period is two years.  At any time after the expiration of the first 12 months of the tenancy agreement, either party of the owner and the tenant household shall be entitled to terminate the tenancy agreement by serving a two months’ prior notice in writing to the other party.  If the tenant household is allocated a public rental housing unit by either HA or HKHS during the tenancy period (including the first 12 months), early termination of the tenancy agreement is required.  The applicants for “Eligible-to-Rent Certificate” must be the tenants signing the Tenancy Agreement and live in the rented bedroom for the tenancy term. 

HKHS Chief Executive Officer Wong Kit-loong said, “This pilot scheme aims to maximise the utilisation of the existing housing resources to provide a transitional housing option for the people who are applying for public housing and have the need to improve the living environment.”
 
The Letting Scheme is applicable to the following subsidised sale developments:

The application fee of the Scheme is HK$200, which will be exempted if the applicant has paid the application fee for “Transitional Rental Housing Scheme – Yue Kwong Chuen”.  Application Form and Application Guide can be downloaded from the Letting Scheme website (lettingscheme.hkhs.com).  Enquiries can also be made at the Hotline 8108-0678.  Interested members of the public can submit application online, by post or by hand.

Announcement of the ballot result is expected on 7 December, while the “Eligible-to-Rent Certificate” will be issued by batches commencing January next year.