The Express Flat Allocation Scheme 2022 has opened for applications on Tuesday until August 8, offering about 2,000 units and allowing successful applicants to select their future home as soon as September.
At the same time, a total of 188 unsold units of Ching Fu Court in Tsing Yi and Dip Tsui Court in Chai Wan under the Green Form Subsidized Home Ownership Scheme Flats will also be available.
The prices of the Ching Fu Court and Dip Tsui Court will remain the same as when the scheme was launched in 2020/21, according to the Housing Authority’s website.
It is the first time that flats under the Green Form Scheme are available during the Express Flat Allocation Scheme after the authority passed the arrangement in January.
Eligible applicants for the express scheme should have a valid public rental housing application – with the registration date falling on or before March 31, 2021. Half of the family members included in the application should have lived in Hong Kong for at least seven years, and the applicants should hold a valid chance of flat allocation.
Yet, applicants would probably want to take a closer look into these flats first as some of them happen to be murder scenes and are dubbed “haunted flats” by others.
They include Room 104 of Ying Kwai House in Kwai Chung Estate, offered in last year’s scheme, where a 46-year-old mother strangled her mentally disabled elder son with garbage bags and a disposable tablecloth in September 2020.
That Kwai Chung unit occupies 39.74 square meters and costs tenants HK$3,606 monthly.
Another is Room 1110 of Nam Lok House, Nam Shan Estate in Shek Kip Mei. It has a floor area of 33.07 square meters and a monthly rent of HK$2,104.
It was also avoided by homeowners-to-be last year as a 57-year-old man killed his 40-year-old wife in November 2018 by plunging a fruit knife into her back.
The express scheme aims to grant eligible applicants a chance to be allocated a public rental housing unit earlier.
If applicants apply both for the express scheme and the unsold flats of Green Form Scheme flats, once the applicants successfully select an apartment from either one of the schemes, the other application will be revoked immediately.
Click here to visit the authority’s website for more information.