Hong Kong Housing Authority and Housing Department

1.

Flat selection procedure of the current phase of EFAS (2018) was completed. Applicants who have not been invited for flat selection; or did not turn up for flat selection upon our invitation; or did not select a flat during flat selection; or withdraw the selected flat before the issue of the offer letter, will not be accorded with one count of “Unreasonable Refusal”. Their original public rental housing applications will continue be processed in accordance with the prevailing public rental housing application policies and procedures provided that the applications are still valid. 

 2.

The new phase of EFAS will be held in Mid 2019 and invitation letters will be sent to all eligible applicants by Housing Department (HD) at the schedule time. For any changes of correspondence address, public housing applicants should notify HD in writing immediately. Eligible applicants interested to join the new phase must submit their application before the specified closing date of application. Applicants may visit this web page, the Headline Daily, am730 Daily, or The Standard for details of the scheme in due course.

Click the "e-Services" banner on this page, you will be directed to the "e-Services" portal.

In the second section named "e-Services for Applicants", there is a hyperlink "Enquire Application Status". Clicking on this hyperlink will lead you to the "Applicant Login" page.

To enquire about your EFAS application status, you must have a registered e-Services account. If you have not registered before, please click the hyperlink "Registration" to register for an e-Services account. You may then use your e-Services account to login. If you have registered before, you may login by inputting either your Application No. or your Alias, if applicable, and your password.

After logging in to e-Services, there is a hyperlink "Enquire Application Status". Clicking on this hyperlink will lead you to the "Enquire Application Status" page.

If you have joined the current EFAS exercise, you can enquire about your application status by clicking the second tab, "Current EFAS Application Details". During the flat selection period, applicants holding valid EFAS application can enquire about the list of remaining flats available for selection.

Under the EFAS, eligible Public Rental Housing (PRH) applicants may have a chance earlier to be allocated PRH units.

2.

The EFAS is launched in accordance with the housing resources available and conducted in mode of flat selection. Flats to be included for selection are less popular. There is no locality restriction for EFAS applicants. Eligible applicants can select a flat from the list of remaining flats available for selection in accordance with the allocation standard and with reference to the number of authorized members in their PRH applications.

The flats offered for selection include vacant rental units of PRH estates in various districts. Some are considered to be desirable in terms of surroundings, transportation network, community service, shopping and medical facilities, etc. Some may have involved in unpleasant incidents, while the floor level, orientation or internal layout of some other units may be less desirable. For example, Po Tin Estate and Tin Yan Estate (Phase 1) in the New Territories have toilets smaller than those in other PRH units.

Rent Reduction incentives: Tenants who take up PRH flats with effective vacancy period of 12 months or more will be granted rent-reduction. The period of rent reduction is determined by the period of effective vacancy of a flat (“Effective vacancy period” is the period during which the unit is under normal letting so that it may differ from the actual vacancy period). Moreover, tenants cannot apply for Housing Department (HD)’s Rent Assistance Scheme during the period. (Remarks: If Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients residing in PRH receive any rent-free incentives or rent-reduction incentives, Social Welfare Department will stop the rental allowance or will only pay rental allowance at an amount equal to the actual rent paid resulting from the rent-reduction incentives, subject to the appropriate maximum rent allowance entitled. For further enquiries, please contact the responsible Social Security Field Unit.)

Having accepted the flat through EFAS, the applicant and his / her family members cannot request for any transfer within three years from the commencement date of the tenancy agreement.

Applicant who has obtained a PRH flat through this exercise and he / she subsequently apply for the purchase of Housing Authority’s (HA) Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats or Hong Kong Housing Society’s (HKHS) “Subsidised Sales Flats Project” with Green Form (including surplus HOS and new HOS flats) within three years from the initial commencement date of the tenancy agreement, then the applicant will be treated as if he / she was White Form (WF) applicant in the flat selection order and will be put under the WF queue. Any flat taken up by him / her will be counted against the WF quota. Upon purchase of a such flat, he / she will have to surrender his / her PRH flat to the HA like other Green Form applicants.

EFAS applicants are not eligible to apply for the sale of flats under Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme (GSH) within three years from the date of initial tenancy commencement of his / her PRH unit.

For applicants (including their family members) whose previous PRH tenancy has been terminated (PRH includes Interim Housing) resulting in a two-year debarment restriction to PRH application, they are not eligible to join this Scheme within the two-year debarment period (except with special approval). For those with their debarment imposed after the application closing date, their EFAS application will also be cancelled accordingly.

For applicants who have been evicted from PRH (PRH includes Interim Housing) due to unsettled rent-in-arrears and are blacklisted, if they fail to settle the outstanding debts, they or any of their adult family members are not allowed to participate in flat selection procedure unless all rent arrears and debts incurred have been settled before their scheduled flat selection date. If they fail to do so, their EFAS application will be cancelled.

If an applicant refuses the housing offer after completing the flat selection procedure and is issued with an offer letter, or fails to turn up for completing intake formalities at the concerned Estate Office, his / her PRH application will be recorded with one "Unreasonable Refusal". This also applies to applicants selecting flats in Po Tin Estate and Tin Yan Estate (Phase 1). It will not be counted as an "Unreasonable Refusal", if the applicant has informed HD of his / her withdrawal before the issue of the offer letter. According to the prevailing policy, if an applicant rejects all of the three housing offers without "acceptable reasons", his / her application will be cancelled.

Applicant who has not been invited for flat selection procedure, or has not attended the procedure upon invitation, or has not selected a flat during the flat selection, will not be accorded with one count of "Unreasonable Refusal". Applicants' PRH application will continue be processed in accordance with the prevailing PRH policies and procedures provided that his/her application is still valid.

If the PRH application has been verified as eligible for PRH and the application is ready for allocation (except for frozen cases), joining this scheme will not affect the chance of being allocated a flat under the normal queue. It is thus possible that offer letter will be issued under his / her normal PRH application, inviting the applicant to complete the intake formalities (including final offer). In that case, the applicant has to decide whether to accept the offer or not. If he / she accepts the offer and completes all the intake formalities, his / her EFAS application will be cancelled. If the applicant refuses the offer, his / her EFAS application will not be affected provided that he / she still holds valid housing offer(s) upon that refusal. If the applicant refuses to accept the final offer leading to cancellation of his / her PRH application, his / her EFAS application will be cancelled accordingly.