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Under the EFAS, eligible PRH applicants may have an earlier chance to be allocated PRH units.
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2.
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The EFAS is launched subject to the availability of housing resources and conducted in mode of self-flat selection. Most flats to be included for selection are less popular PRH flats. There is no locality restriction for EFAS applicants. Eligible applicants can select only one flat from the list of remaining flats available for selection in accordance with the number of authorised members in their PRH applications and the allocation standard of individual flats.
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3.
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As there are a large number of applicants for the EFAS while the number of flats available for selection is limited and the flats are unevenly distributed across various districts, the HD cannot guarantee that all applicants will be invited for flat selection or be able to successfully select a flat. The HD will only invite applicants for flat selection provided that there are flats available in their selected districts and/or flat types.
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| 4. |
Should an applicant apply for both the EFAS and Resale of Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme Flats of Ching Fu Court and Dip Tsui Court, no matter what the circumstances are, once he/she has successfully selected a flat under the EFAS / Resale of Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme Flats of Ching Fu Court and Dip Tsui Court, his/her eligibility for the other Exercise / Scheme will be revoked immediately. Even if he/she has withdrawn the selected PRH flat under the EFAS or cancelled the Agreement for Sale and Purchase of the flat under the Resale of Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme Flats of Ching Fu Court and Dip Tsui Court, the application for the other Exercise / Scheme cannot be reverted.
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| 5. |
If the applicant’s eligibility for PRH has yet to be verified after the flat selection, the HD will immediately appoint a date of the detailed vetting interview for the applicant. In general, the interview will be conducted within one month, counting from the date of flat selection. If the applicant (and the authorised person who attended the flat selection session on behalf of the applicant) fails to make the appointment date of the detailed vetting interview right after the flat selection, the application for the EFAS will be immediately cancelled and the selected flat will not be reserved. Based on the principle of optimising public housing resources, the HD will not consider the requests of the applicant (and the authorised person) for postponing the interview for more than two months, counting from the date of flat selection. The applicant and his/her family member(s) reaching the age of 18 (if any) included in the PRH application must attend the interview as scheduled and complete the required procedures in person; otherwise, the application for the EFAS will be cancelled and the selected flat will not be reserved. Under normal circumstances, applicant whose eligibility for PRH has already been confirmed will receive the “offer letter” in about one month, from the date of the letter that confirmed his/her eligibility for PRH or the date of flat selection, whichever is later. Applicants are required to complete the intake formalities at the respective estate office on the date specified in the letter. Based on the principle of optimising public housing resources, the HD will not consider the applicant’s request for postponing the date of issuance of the “offer letter”.
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Based on the principle of optimising public housing resources, if (i) the Applicant voluntarily withdraws the selected flat under the EFAS; or (ii) the Applicant and/ or his/her family member(s) reaching the age of 18 (if any) included in the PRH application fail(s) to attend the detailed vetting interview in person as scheduled and/or submit requisite documents within the specified period for verification of his/her eligibility for PRH; or (iii) the Applicant refuses the housing offer of the selected flat after successful verification of his/her eligibility for PRH and receiving the “offer letter”; or (iv) the Applicant fails to turn up for completion of the formalities of the tenancy of the selected flat at the respective estate office, without any “acceptable reason”, the allocation will be counted as one valid offer. “Acceptable reasons” for refusing the housing offers include: (i) the Applicant has supporting document(s) issued by the relevant organisations (such as the Hospital Authority), stating clearly the medical reason(s) for not accepting the PRH unit offered; (ii) the Applicant has supporting document(s) issued by the Social Welfare Department / relevant organisation, stating clearly the social reason(s) for not accepting the PRH unit offered; and (iii) the Applicant has document(s) to prove that he/she is unable to sign the tenancy agreement as scheduled due to his/her absence from Hong Kong or hospitalisation for treatment.
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| 7. |
Applicants who have not been invited for self-flat selection or have not attended upon invitation, or failed to successfully select a flat during the self-flat selection procedure, will not be recorded with one count of valid offer. Their PRH application will continue to be processed in accordance with the prevailing PRH policies and procedure provided that the application is still valid.
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The flats offered for selection include vacant rental units of PRH estates located 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, units in Po Tin Estate and Tin Yan Estate (Phase 1) in the New Territories are equipped with smaller toilet and kitchen than those in other PRH units.
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Tenants who take up PRH flats with effective vacancy period of 12 months or more will be granted 50% reduction on monthly rent. 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 actual vacancy period). Tenants cannot apply for HD’s Rent Assistance Scheme during the period. (Remarks: If Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients residing in public housing 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 maximum rent allowance entitled. For further enquiries, please contact the responsible Social Security Field Unit.)
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Cash Allowance Trial Scheme: If a PRH applicant household has selected a flat through EFAS as the first PRH flat offer and has been issued with a “Reserving Selected Flat Offer Letter”, irrespective of whether the selected flat is eventually accepted, the household will be deemed to have been provided with a first flat offer (save for cases with “acceptable reason(s)” for refusing housing offers as determined by HD under the established PRH allocation mechanism) and therefore no longer meets the eligibility criteria of the Cash Allowance Trial Scheme (the Trial Scheme). If the PRH applicant household is receiving cash allowance under the Trial Scheme and eventually accepts the selected flat offer, the cash allowance will be disbursed until the end of the month in which the tenancy agreement of the PRH flat is signed; if the PRH applicant household eventually refuses the selected flat offer, the cash allowance will be disbursed until the end of the month of flat selection as specified in the “Reserving Selected Flat Offer Letter”. Cash Allowance Office will suspend the disbursement of cash allowance effective from the following month of the flat selection specified in the “Reserving Selected Flat Offer Letter”. If the PRH applicant household eventually accepts the selected flat offer, Cash Allowance Office will pay back the cash allowance for the suspended period until the end of the month in which the tenancy agreement of the PRH flat is signed; if the PRH applicant household eventually refuses the selected flat offer, the cash allowance application will be terminated and the cash allowance for the suspended period will not be disbursed due to not fulfilling the eligibility criteria of the Trial Scheme. Applicant households may visit the Trial Scheme’s website or contact the Cash Allowance Office for further information of the Trial Scheme.
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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. At flat selection, applicants are therefore required to sign an undertaking to acknowledge that they cannot request a transfer within three years from the date of commencement of the tenancy agreement in respect of the selected flat. HD may exercise discretion for special cases verified by relevant departments/organisations, or transfers upon demand of the HD.
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Applicant who has obtained a PRH flat through EFAS and subsequently applies with Green Form (GF) for purchase of a flat under HA’s Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) or Hong Kong Housing Society’s “Subsidised Sales Flats Project”(including surplus HOS and new HOS flats) within three years from the initial commencement date of the tenancy agreement, he/she will be treated as 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 such a flat, he / she will have to surrender his / her PRH flat to HA like the other GF applicants.
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Applicants housed through EFAS will not be eligible to apply for the sale of flats under Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme within three years from the initial date of tenancy commencement of their PRH units.
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For applicants (including their family member(s) aged 18 or above) whose previous PRH tenancies were terminated (PRH includes Interim Housing(IH)) resulting in a two-yearNote debarment restriction for PRH application, they are not eligible to join EFAS within the two-yearNote debarment period. For those who are with their debarment imposed after the application closing date, their EFAS application will also be cancelled accordingly.
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Tenants departing from PRH (including IH) with rent arrears unsettled at the time of tenancy termination have vacated the PRH unit, the ex-tenant and any members aged 18 or above of such households are required to settle all rent arrears/debts incurred in the past before they can be allocated a PRH unit through the PRH Application. (Applicable to ex-tenants whose flats are recovered by HD after 30 September 2005). For applicants who are those ex-tenants are not allowed to attend the flat selection procedures unless all rent arrears/debts incurred have been settled before their scheduled flat selection date under the EFAS. Failing which the application of the EFAS will be cancelled.
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If the PRH application has been verified as eligible for PRH and the application is ready for allocation (except for frozen cases), joining EFAS 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) during EFAS. 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 chance of housing offer(s). 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.
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| 17. |
In accordance with the principle of optimising public housing resources and subject to the availability of such resources, if there are still flats available for selection after all invited eligible applicants have attended the flat selection, the HD will consider re-inviting eligible applicants who have not selected a flat under EFAS to join the flat selection of the remaining flats according to order of priority for flat selection. The HD reserves all rights in respect of flat selection arrangements.
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For enquiry, please call the Housing Authority Hotline 2712 2712.
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| Note |
If applicants (including their family member(s) aged 18 or above) whose previous PRH tenancies have been terminated (PRH includes IH) starting from 1st October 2023, they will not be eligible to apply for PRH for five years from the date of tenancy termination. |
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