The Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) is a subsidised-sale public housing programme managed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. It was instituted in the late 1970s as part of the government policy for public housing with two aims – to encourage better-off tenants of rental flats to vacate those flats for re-allocation to families in greater housing need; and also to provide an opportunity for home ownership to families unable to afford to buy in the private sector.
Tin Fu Court, a public housing estate of the Home Ownership Scheme in Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong
Kam Hay Court in Ma On Shan
Public housing in Hong Kong
Public housing in Hong Kong is a set of mass housing programmes through which the Government of Hong Kong provides affordable housing for lower-income residents. It is a major component of housing in Hong Kong, with nearly half of the population now residing in some form of public housing. The public housing policy dates to 1954, after a fire in Shek Kip Mei destroyed thousands of shanty homes and prompted the government to begin constructing homes for the poor.
Kin Ming Estate, completed in 2003 in Tseung Kwan O, consists of 10 housing blocks of New Harmony I design, housing about 22,000 people.
Mei Ho House of Shek Kip Mei Estate during the 1956 riots
Lower Ngau Tau Kok (II) Estate, a rental public housing estate built in 1969
Siu Hong Court, an early Home Ownership Scheme housing estate built in 1982