Home ownership

The owners are satisfied with the living conditions at Greenview Villa and hope that more similar subsidised housing units will be provided to enable the middle class to buy homes.

The Hong Kong Housing Society's Greenview Villa in Tsing Yi is the first subsidised sale housing project of the current-term Government. I visited the site and took a look at the mock-up flats in December 2012, five months after taking office. Now, most of the flats in this housing estate are occupied. I revisited the place today to see for myself the living conditions of the households.

Open for application in late 2012, Greenview Villa was oversubscribed more than 50 times. Flat selection started in early April 2013 after the ballot draw. The quota (60 per cent of the flats) for White Form family applicants was all used up in just seven days, and all the 988 flats were sold out in 11 days.

Today, the Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Housing Society, Mr Wong Kit-loong, and I visited a family living in this housing estate. Having submitted a White Form application, this family of four bought a two-bedroom flat of more than 500 square feet at 70 per cent of the then market price.

The owners are satisfied with the living conditions at Greenview Villa. They told me that people find it difficult to buy their first properties as the current local property prices are still beyond the affordability of middle-class families. They expressed the hope that more subsidised flats, like those at Greenview Villa, would be provided to enable the middle class to buy their own homes.

Addressing the housing problem has been a top priority of the current-term Government, and helping the middle class buy homes is my pledge. In the newly released Policy Address, I also stressed that the Government would keep up its efforts to increase housing supply and suppress demand for local property from speculators, investors and buyers from outside Hong Kong. In the coming five years, apart from increasing private housing supply, the Hong Kong Housing Authority and the Hong Kong Housing Society will provide a total of about 20 400 subsidised sale flats. Around 3 700 and 2 600 units will be put up for pre-sale this year and next year respectively to provide starter homes for more middle-class families.

After three and a half years' hard work, we have seen a marked increase in the supply of new flats and a fall in property prices and rentals. Nevertheless, property prices and rentals are still far beyond the affordability of the public. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government will steadfastly continue to increase housing and land supply and implement subsidised housing schemes to solve Hong Kong's housing problem at source. I am grateful to my colleagues in the Government, the Hong Kong Housing Authority, the Hong Kong Housing Society and the District Councils for their concerted efforts.

Together we celebrate the birthday of the daughter of the owners with a cake.

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January 16, 2016