Hong Kong Housing Authority and Housing Department

1.

The flat selection procedures of EFAS (2018) were 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”. It will not affect their original public rental housing applications which will continue with the normal course 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 (2019) will invite applications from 23 July to 12 August 2019. Applicants with valid Public Rental Housing applications of which the registration date or equivalent registration date (equivalent registration date must be adopted if it is found in the application) falling on or before 31 March 2018 【i.e. application number is G1420296-3 / U0442843-5 or earlier】 together fulfilling the seven-year residence rule and holding valid housing offers are eligible to apply for this scheme. The Housing Department (HD) will send invitation letters to all eligible applicants. Those who are eligible and interested in joining the scheme but have not received the invitation letter by 31 July 2019 may enquire through the Housing Authority Hotline at 2712 2712 or download the application form from this website. Applicants must return the duly completed original application form to the HD on or before 12 August 2019.

3.

Applicants may browse this web page for details and latest information of the scheme or the information publishes on the 15th day of every month in the Headline Daily, am 730 Daily, and The Standard (publication will be deferred to the next publishing day subject to the publishing day of the newspaper).

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 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 authorized members in their PRH applications and the allocation standard of individual flats.

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.

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 (“Effective vacancy period” is the period during which the unit is under normal letting so that it may differ from the actual vacancy period). Tenants cannot apply for Housing Department’s (HD) Rent Assistance Scheme during the period. (If CSSA 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 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. At flat selection, applicants are 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/organization, or transfers upon demand of the HD.

Applicant who has obtained a PRH flat through EFAS 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 such a flat, he / she will have to surrender his / her PRH flat to the HA like the other Green Form applicants.

Applicants housed through EFAS will not be eligible to apply for the sale of flats under Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme (GSH) within three years from the initial date of 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 were the ex-tenant or any members aged 18 or above departed from PRH (PRH includes Interim Housing) with rent arrears unsettled would be blacklisted. Applicants of such households are not allowed to attend the flat selection procedures unless all rent arrears and debts incurred have been settled before their scheduled flat selection date under the EFAS, failing which the 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.

Applicants who have not been invited for self-flat selection procedure or have not attended the procedure upon invitation, or failed to successfully select a flat during the self-flat selection procedure, will not be recorded with one count of "Unreasonable Refusal". Their PRH application will continue to be processed in accordance with the prevailing PRH policies and procedure provided that the 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.