The think tank, Our Hong Kong Foundation, has proposed a plan to increase home ownership rate. File photo: RTHK
An HKU academic - who helped draft a proposal that would allow those on low incomes to buy new public housing flats at discounts of up to 50 percent - has denied that it is over-generous to a certain group of people.
Professor Richard Wong of the "Our Hong Kong Foundation", which is led by the former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa - said under the scheme buyers who eventually sell up should only have to pay the government a premium based on how much their flats were worth at the time of purchase.
Speaking on RTHK's NewsWrap programme, he denied that this would give those who qualified a double benefit.
“It is an option that is available to every purchaser in the private sector,” he said. “The only difficulty is a poor person is unable to get a loan in the private sector.”
Wong said the government should carry the debt on its books until the purchaser repays all of it.
However, the Housing Secretary Anthony Cheung poured cold water on the proposal.
He said a government-appointed committee had earlier considered the idea, and that it had concluded that people on lower incomes should continue to be able to rent public flats, with buying subsidised homes an option for those whose financial situation had improved.
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1222588-20151109.htm
