Home ownership scheme

The Home Ownership Scheme (HOS; Chinese: 居者有其屋計劃) is a subsidized-sale programme of public housing in Hong Kong managed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. It was instituted in the late 1970s as part of the government policy for public housing with two aims - to encourage better-off tenants of rental flats to vacate those flats for re-allocation to families in greater housing need; and also to provide an opportunity for home ownership to families unable to afford to buy in the private sector.

Under the scheme, the government sells apartment flats to eligible public housing tenants and to low-income residents at prices below the market level, with discounts usually between 30 and 40 percent,. It restricts resale of the units in the second-hand market to other families who qualify or, on the open market, after payment of a premium equal to the updated value of the discount given on the original purchase. As an ancillary scheme, the Housing Authority also entered into arrangements with local private developers to provide property for sale under the Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS).

Between 1995 and 2000, the Hong Kong Housing Society also offered the Sandwich Class Housing Scheme for lower middle class families whose incomes exceeded the Home Ownership Scheme requirements, but still had trouble affording private housing. In 2003, falling real estate values led the government to pause the construction of new Home Ownership Scheme estates indefinitely.

The first such plan was launched in 1978 and the first batch of flats became available in 1980, the first estates being Yuet Lai Court (悅麗苑) in Kwai Chung, Shun Chi Court (順緻苑) in Kwun Tong, Shan Tsui Court (山翠苑) in Chai Wan, Chun Man Court (俊民苑) in Ho Man Tin, Sui Wo Court (穗禾苑) in Sha Tin and Yue Fai Court (漁暉苑) in Aberdeen.

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