The Housing Authority (HA) will start selling the remaining 3,000 Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats in January 2007 after a three-year moratorium.

HA will rake in HK$4.2 billion if all of the units are sold, and its net profit, after deducting construction costs, would be about HK$1.5 billion. The flats are in three estates - Kingsford Terrace in Ngau Chi Wan, Yue Chui Court in Sha Tin and Block J of Tin Fu Court in Tin Shui Wai.

The Kingsford Terrace flats offer magnificent views and are the only ones in a densely populated area. They are the most expensive too, selling at an average of HK$2,420 per square foot, with one unit commanding a price of HK$1.89 million.

Yue Chui Court comes next, going for an average of HK$1,840 per square foot.

The Tin Fu Court flats offer the most affordable prices - an average of HK$1,010 per square foot. Its cheapest unit comes for only HK$560,000. HA has said the prices were fixed at 70 per cent of the market price in the areas.

Applications will be accepted from January 1, 2007, with 80 per cent of the flats to be sold to public housing tenants ("green form applicants") and the rest to general ("white form") applicants.

Priority will be given to households affected by public housing redevelopment in Wong Chuk Hang Estate in Aberdeen, So Uk Estate in Sham Shui Po and Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate in Kwun Tong.

The upper family income limit for "white form applicants" has been raised to HK$22,000, with their assets not exceeding HK$610,000 each. The limits for single applicants are half of that.

Successful applicants will be allowed to choose their units in March. Unlike before, however, these HOS units cannot be sold back to HA.

Since the real estate market has already digested the news, and the number of flats to be sold is relatively small, the resumption of HOS flats' sales won't hurt property prices, a source said yesterday.

The units are now in good conditions because HA has spent HK$5 million on their maintenance and repair. HA will continue to provide such services to flat owners in the first three months of occupation, the source said.

Chairman of Federation of Public Housing Estates Wong Kwun said since the sale of HOS flats stopped, the purchasing power of the people, especially of public housing tenants paying 1.5 or 2 times the normal rent, had gone up.

But Wong felt that because of the abolition of the "sell back" policy it is more reasonable to fix the discount at less than 70 per cent.