The government launched a new round of applications yesterday for 3,011 subsidised home-ownership scheme (HOS) flats on the land reclamation area officially known as Zone A.
The application period will end on March 26 next year.
A press conference about the new round of applications for the 3,011 units was held yesterday at the Housing Bureau (IH) in Ilha Verde.
The 3,011 HOS flats, which will be built on three plots on Zone A, comprise 760 one-bedroom units, 998 two-bedroom units, and 1,253 three-bedroom units.
According to the press conference, which was hosted by IH Director Arnaldo Ernesto dos Santos and two other IH senior officials, 1,575 of the 3,011 flats will be built on plot “B4”, while 636 and 800 will be built on plots “B9” and “B10” respectively.
For this round of applications, the household monthly minimum income, to be eligible to apply for an HOS flat, amounts to 11,640 patacas for a one-person household and 17,680 patacas for a two-person household, while for a household with seven members or more, the monthly income must be at least 34,390 patacas.
The household monthly maximum income, to be eligible to apply for an HOS flat, is 38,910 patacas for a one-person household and 77,820 patacas for a household with two members or more.
The maximum limit of net assets for a one-person household to be eligible to apply for an HOS flat is 1,273,400 patacas, while for a household with two members or more the limit is 2,546,800 patacas. Only permanent residents aged at least 18 are entitled to apply.Minimum & maximum limits
The government raised the household monthly income minimum and maximum limits and the maximum limit of net assets for HOS applications early this month. The last time the government raised the three thresholds was in 2014.
The last time the government accepted applications for HOS flats was back in 2013 – a round of applications for 1,544 flats in early 2013 and another round of applications for 1,900 flats in late 2013. At that time, the 1,900 flats drew over 38,000 applicants.Ernesto dos Santos said that as the HOS projects on the three plots are still being designed, his bureau currently does not have a price list for the 3,011 flats, and the government does not have a timetable as to when the flats will be completed either. Consequently, the government does not yet have a date for when the flats will be handed to the successful applicants.
In his 2019 Policy Address presented to lawmakers in November last year, Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On said that the government would launch a new round of applications for about 4,000 HOS flats in 2019. In December last year, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário told lawmakers that the some 4,000 flats would be built on four plots in Zone A.
In his government work report for 2019 presented to lawmakers on November 12, Chui said that the government will launch the new round of applications for HOS flats by the end of this month. However, the Government Spokesperson’s Office (GPV) said in a statement later that day that the new round of applications would only have 3,011 flats.
The Infrastructure Development Office (GDI) said in a statement the next day that the office initially expected the new round of applications to have some 4,000 flats to be built on four plots on Zone A, but because a bidder for one of the four plots had filed an appeal against the outcome of the public tender for the HOS construction project on this plot, the government had decided to launch the application process for flats on the other three plots first, providing 3,011 flats.
The government first announced in 2014 that it plans to build 28,000 public housing units in Zone A, the reclamation of which was still being carried out at that time. The reclamation project was completed in late 2017.
28,000 public housing units for Zone A
In his 2019 Policy Address presented in November last year, Chui said that the construction of the planned 28,000 public housing units in Zone A would be carried out in four phases, adding that some 7,000 flats would be built on seven plots there in the first phase.
The government’s public housing programme comprises subsidised HOS flats and social rental housing units.
HOS flats are much cheaper than their counterparts in the private property market. Due to their perceived affordability compared with their counterparts in the private property markets, the units are collectively known in local Chinese and Portuguese as “economical housing”. In Hong Kong and Singapore there are officially known as HOS flats.
Social housing rents are also much lower than those in the private market.
Residents queue outside the Housing Bureau (IH) in Ilha Verde yesterday for forms to apply for 3,011 subsidised home-ownership scheme (HOS) flats to be built in the Zone A land reclamation area Photo: MPDG
