By James Lee

Copyright hongkongfp

The government has made a “cautious” decision not to revive a long-axed mechanism allowing public housing tenants to purchase their homes at a discount, an academic has said.

It came as the city’s biggest pro-Beijing party said it would continue urging the authorities to bring back the scheme, following Wednesday’s Policy Address.

Contrary to local media reports in the lead-up to Chief Executive John Lee’s fourth policy blueprint, Lee did not announce a revival of the Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS), which was axed some two decades ago in 2005.

Professor Yung Yau at Lingnan University’s Institute of Policy Studies said in a statement that the government’s decision was not an easy one, and that he believed it had carefully weighed the pros and cons of such a policy.

Citing the city’s struggling property market, Yau said that re-launching the programme may further affect market stability. Reintroducing it could also affect the amount of public housing in circulation, impacting public housing queue times, he added.

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Yau also cited estate management issues: “Past experience has shown that these estates have often faced challenges regarding management, and residents’ satisfaction has suffered as a result.”

Holding off on bringing back the scheme was “undoubtedly a rational and responsible approach,” he added.

Housing ladder

Instead of the TPS, Lee on Wednesday announced other measures to make it easier for public housing tenants to buy a flat.

With the overall supply of subsidised flats expected to increase by 50 per cent in the coming five years, the government will allocate additional quotas for public rental housing tenants – or “Green Form” applicants – to purchase a subsidised flat, Lee said.

They will have the same quota as White Form applicants – renters on the private market who meet specific income and asset limits, after the ratio of green to white form applicants is adjusted from 40:60 to 50:50.

Meanwhile, local media cited government sources on Wednesday as saying that the scheme had not been relaunched owing to “divisions” in society, including factors such as the discount rates and the views of public housing tenants.

At a press conference following Lee’s address on Wednesday, Hong Kong’s largest pro-establishment party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), urged the government to relaunch the program, citing calls from public housing residents.

DAB lawmaker Chan Hok-fung said that the scheme was a “contentious” issue, but also that the party would meet with authorities to discuss how to relaunch the policy.