Tagged: HOS

Another 1200 Tung Chung HOS flats on sale next week

Apartments at a new Tung Chung public housing complex will go on sale next week.

The new estate, Yu Tai Court, is on the corner of Yu Tung and Chung Yan roads, opposite the North Lantau Hospital.

It contains 1226 flats in two towers, 40 and 28 floors.

The units range in size from 277.7 to 571.6 square feet and the sales prices will range from HK$1.59 million to HK$4.28 million – a 70% discount on the market price, HK01 reports.

Source: Housing Authority

While applications will be open from March 29 to April 11, tenants won’t be moving in for two and a half years. The current estimated completion date is August 2020.

The Housing Authority is also selling another 3200 HOS apartments at Kai Tak and Cheung Sha Wa.

1200 subsidised Tung Chung flats to go on sale next month

The Housing Authority will begin selling 1226 new Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) apartments in Tung Chung from the end of March.

The Yu Tai Court apartments, still under construction, will cost on average below HK$7000 per square foot – a 30% discount to the market price, according to HK01.

By comparison, the average sale price of the last ten transactions at Coastal Skyline, Caribbean Coast and Seaview Crescent was HK$8323, figures from squarefoot.com.hk show.

Most of the Yu Tai Court flats are small, with saleable area ranging from 277 square feet to 571 square feet. About 1,000 are below 430 square feet.

The apartments, at the corner of Yu Tung and Chung Yan roads, opposite the North Lantau Hospital, won’t be ready until at least 2020.

They are part of a batch of 4,400 HOS apartments being offered for sale at the end of March.

Randy Yu sounds alarm on Mui Wo population growth

District Councillor Randy Yu has called on government, police and transport providers to explain how they will cope with Mui Wo’s coming population boom.

The opening of two Housing Department estates in Mui Wo next August will add 700 new homes and increase the population by between 1,700 to 2,000 – a huge spike from the current level of around 5,400.

“The public is greatly concerned about the lack of community facilities,” Yu said in a question tabled to the Islands District Council.

Local residents are worried about the carrying capacity of the ferry and bus services, inadequate parking for cars and bikes, the level of medical services and the lack of police.

Yu, who represents South Lantau, said his office has even received calls from those who have purchased homes in the new estates expressing concern about the expensive ferry fares.

He called on the Transport Department, the Hospital Authority, police and the ferry and bus companies to attend next week’s District Council meeting to explain how they will address these issues.

Mui Wo’s coming population boom

Around this time next year Mui Wo’s population will undergo a sharp expansion with the completion of two new public housing projects.

The new estates, Ngan Ho Court and Ngan Wai Court, will provide 700 new apartments, enough to support approximately 2000 new residents. That means the current Mui Wo population of around 5,500 will increase by 35% or more.

The bigger of the two will be Ngan Ho Court, at the end of Ngan Kwong Wan Road. It comprises two blocks, one 18 and the other 16 storeys, altogether containing 529 apartments.

Ngan Wai Court, which faces the rear of the Mui Wo clinic on Ngan Kwong Wan Rd, is a single 16-storey block with 170 homes.

Q: Why Mui Wo?

The Hong Kong government has built subsidised public housing since the 1950s. Today, 46% of the population lives either in public rental or subsidised sale flats. These new apartments are built under the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), one of several different programmes aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing. Dozens of HOS estates provide housing for hundreds of thousands of people, including in Yu Tung, Tung Chung, and Lung Hin, Tai O.

Q: Why this part of Mui Wo?

Most land in Mui Wo belongs to indigenous villagers whose privileges are enshrined in the Basic Law. Ngan Ho is officially zoned in Mui Wo Fringe, while Ngan Wai falls into no zoning plan at all. No indigenous villager in Mui Wo is giving up any of his entitlements to alleviate the housing crisis.

Q: When will people start moving in?

According to the builders, both housing estates will be completed by August 31 2018. New residents will start moving in after the date.

 

Ngan Ho Court

Q: Are these units to be rented or for sale?

For sale. The sale is carried out by ballot and according to certain eligibility criteria.

Q: These aren’t the first public housing projects in Mui Wo, right?

They’re not even the first on Ngan Kwong Wan Rd. The Ngan Wan Estate, built in 1988, has 400 rental apartments in four tower blocks, with a population capped at 1,300.

Q: That’s a lot of extra people moving in. Can our transport services cope?

We don’t know. The New Lantao Bus Company is considering running double-decker buses to Mui Wo. It says details of its preparations will be contained in a five-year plan for the Transport Department.

New World First Ferry said, in response to a query from Bob Bunker of Living Islands Movement:

“We are collecting the data from related governmental departments in order for us to review and devise the overall sailing arrangements in the following years. Please be assured that we will closely monitor the change of passenger demand and provide appropriate sailing arrangements.”

We will post the Transport Department’s reply when it arrives.