Housing Authority Subsidised Housing Committee Chairman Cleresa Wong (left) officiates at the electronic ballot drawing ceremony in Hong Kong, Oct 5, 2023. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVT)

HONG KONG – The Housing Authority of Hong Kong has relaxed mortgage arrangements for subsidized sale flats (SSFs) by extending the maximum mortgage default guarantee period and mortgage repayment period.

For subsidized sale flats sold on the secondary market, the maximum mortgage default guarantee period will be extended to 50 years, counting from the date of the first assignment of individual properties, the Housing Authority’s Subsidised Housing Committee announced on Friday. 

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This will cover new Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats, Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme (GSH) flats and Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) flats, it added.

Together with the extension of the maximum mortgage repayment period, the new arrangement is expected to help SSF purchasers secure mortgage loans of a longer tenor and facilitate the circulation of SSFs on the secondary market

The maximum mortgage repayment period for such flats sold on the secondary market will also be extended from 25 years to 30 years.

The relaxation will take effect on March 1, 2024.

With the extension of the maximum mortgage default guarantee period to 50 years for SSFs sold on the secondary market, the number of flats with a residual guarantee period of more than 10 years will increase substantially from about 14 percent to about 98 percent for HOS and GSH flats, and from about 24 percent to 100 percent for TPS flats, according to the Housing Authority.

The new arrangement, together with the extension of the maximum mortgage repayment period, should help SSF purchasers secure mortgage loans of a longer tenor and facilitate the circulation of SSFs on the secondary market, it added.

For SSFs sold on the primary market, the maximum mortgage default guarantee period will be extended from 25 years to 30 years for TPS flats.

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Meanwhile, the maximum mortgage repayment period will be extended to 30 years for HOS, GSH projects and TPS flats sold on the primary market.

The relaxations on SSFs sold on the primary market will start from Jan 1, 2024, the authority added.