The Urban Renewal Authority has suddenly opened up its subsidised flats for purchase by single people, just four short months after excluding the very same demographic.
A non-executive director for the URA suggested that the move was a preventive measure in anticipation of a possible legal challenge under the Family Status Discrimination Ordinance (read: covering their asses).
URA, described by SCMP as a “quasi-official body”, has so far only opened their De Novo development at Kai Tak to single buyers. The development has 338 subsidised flats ranging between 332 to 568 square feet, which are being offered at 80 percent of the market rate.
The subsidised flats were conceptualised as part of a scheme to help middle-income families who couldn’t afford to buy real estate in Hong Kong’s eye-wateringly expensive private property market.
Applicants must have a total monthly household income and asset value of under HKD60,000 and HKD3 million, respectively.
They also must not have already owned property, lived in Hong Kong for fewer than seven years, or be public housing tenants who are eligible to apply for apartments under the Housing Authority’s Home Ownership Scheme.
Photo: (De Novo development in 2014) Wikimedia Commons
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