Hong Kong HOS Flat Selection Set for October 21, With Family Priorities and Extra Ballot Chances

Thousands of subsidised homes move to the selection stage

Hong Kong's Housing Authority will begin inviting eligible Home Ownership Scheme applicants to choose flats on October 21, with new homes in Kai Tak, Kam Tin, Tseung Kwan O, Ping Shan and Tung Chung priced from about HK$1.5 million to HK$4.8 million. Selection will take place by appointment at the Housing Authority Customer Service Centre in Lok Fu.

The selection announcement describes nearly 7,000 new flats and about 400 resale HOS flats. The Housing Authority's December sale announcement, published on December 18, 2025, gave a higher figure of more than 8,300 flats across the same five locations. The reason for the difference is not explained, and the October 21 selection announcement does not explicitly state the year, although official application rules and the ballot guidance carry dates in 2026.

The homes have saleable areas of about 26.1 to 52 square metres, equivalent to approximately 281 to 560 square feet. Saleable area describes the space within an individual home, making it a more useful measure for comparing living space than a figure that includes shared building areas.

Housing Secretary Winnie Ho Wing-yin has said more than 72,000 subsidised flats for sale are expected to be completed over the next five years. For applicants in this round, however, the immediate issue is how their household category, ballot numbers and appointment position determine which homes they can choose.

Why a scheme named 2025 has dates in 2026

HOS 2025 is the name of the sales exercise. The government's December 2025 announcement scheduled applications for the second quarter of 2026, alongside two other subsidised housing schemes. The Housing Authority's detailed eligibility page subsequently listed April 30, 2026, as the application opening date and May 20, 2026, as the deadline.

The sequence matters because several qualifications depend on an applicant's age or household circumstances on those particular dates. A person's eligibility for an extra ballot number or a family priority arrangement is assessed against the stated application rules.

• December 18, 2025: The Housing Authority announced plans to accept applications for HOS 2025 and two related schemes in the second quarter of 2026.
• April 30, 2026: The official eligibility rules identify this as the start of the HOS 2025 application period.
• May 20, 2026: The official rules identify this as the application deadline.
• October 13, 2026: The government's ballot guidance records this as its review date.
• October 21: The selection announcement gives this as the start of flat selection, with invitations issued in batches.

Eligible applicants will receive a letter or email specifying when to attend the Lok Fu centre. The process therefore brings applicants forward in an arranged order, rather than asking everyone to arrive on the opening day.

More space for families, within a compact size range

The five new developments offer homes ranging from about 281 to 560 square feet. Ho said none of the HOS 2025 flats is smaller than 26 square metres. At the upper end, the largest homes provide roughly twice the saleable area of the smallest.

The Housing Authority's December announcement defines larger HOS flats as those measuring about 41.2 to 52 square metres, or approximately 443 to 560 square feet. These account for about a quarter of the total. The selection announcement says the share of larger units has risen from about 20% to about 25%.

That is an increase of five percentage points: about one larger flat in every four, compared with one in every five previously. Expressed another way, the share allocated to larger homes has increased by 25% relative to the earlier share. Families gain a wider proportion of choices with more living space, while most homes remain below the larger size category.

The approximately 400 resale HOS flats are offered alongside the new developments. The announced HK$1.5 million to HK$4.8 million price range refers to the new HOS homes.

What a HK$2.8 million home could cost each month

The Housing Authority gives a mortgage example for a home costing HK$2.8 million and measuring about 36.2 square metres, or 390 square feet. With a mortgage covering 90% of the price, repayment over 30 years and an interest rate of about 3.5%, the estimated monthly repayment is approximately HK$11,300.

Under those assumptions, the loan would be HK$2.52 million and the buyer's contribution toward the purchase price would be HK$280,000. The monthly estimate covers mortgage repayment; a household also needs a budget for expenses such as management charges, utilities and the costs of completing the purchase.

The example helps explain why a subsidised purchase can still require substantial savings and regular income. At the official monthly income ceiling of HK$30,000 for a White Form applicant applying alone, HK$11,300 would equal about 38% of income. Against the HK$60,000 ceiling for a household of two or more, it would equal about 19%. Those comparisons use the eligibility ceilings, rather than the actual income of any buyer.

The December announcement prices the new HOS homes at a 30% discount to assessed market values. In simple terms, the sale price is set at 70% of the authority's assessed value. Mortgage repayment will depend on the home selected, the amount borrowed, the repayment period and the interest rate applying to the loan.

Who gets to choose first?

The government's ballot and priority guidance explains that applicants are first ranked by category. Ballot results then determine the order within each category. This creates five broad groups:

• Eligible family applicants affected by announced public housing clearance plans.
• Family applicants participating in the priority schemes for households with elderly members or newborn children.
• Other family applicants.
• Eligible applicants applying alone who are affected by announced public housing clearance plans.
• Other applicants applying alone.

The clearance rules use April 30, 2026, as a reference date and include conditions concerning announced clearance plans and target dates for vacating homes. Within White Form family applications, core families receive priority over families classified as noncore under the scheme.

The selection announcement identifies affected tenants in specified buildings at Wah Fu Estate, Choi Hung Estate and Ma Tau Wai Estate, as well as Sai Wan Estate. At Wah Fu, the listed buildings are Wah On, Wah Lok, Wah Cheong, Wah Tai and Wah Kin houses. At Choi Hung, they are Pik Hoi, Kam Pik and Tan Fung houses; at Ma Tau Wai, they are Rose and Narcissus houses.

Eligible tenants choosing to buy a subsidised home instead of taking another public rental flat receive selection priority. The official category order places affected families ahead of other families, while affected people applying alone receive priority within the groups for individual applicants.

Reserved homes for elderly households, newborns and individuals

The Housing Authority has reserved 2,800 new HOS flats for eligible families participating in the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Members and the Priority Scheme for Families with Newborns. Another 700 new flats are reserved for applicants applying alone.

The official HOS eligibility rules describe the combined family priority allocation as approximately 40% of newly offered flats. They also set out the conditions behind those priority labels.

For the elderly household scheme, the qualifying elderly member must be at least 60 by May 20, 2026. At least one qualifying elderly member must become an owner or joint owner of the purchased home. The family must undertake to live with that person, and at least one listed family member must continue sharing the home with them.

For the newborn scheme, eligibility includes a child born on or after October 25, 2023, who is aged three or younger at the application deadline. A qualifying pregnancy must have reached at least 16 weeks by the deadline, with medical documentation giving an expected delivery date of November 4, 2026, or earlier.

A family's newborn priority is reassessed if the qualifying child is removed from the application. Children included in a successful purchase through the newborn priority scheme cannot be used again in another application under that priority arrangement.

How extra ballot numbers work

White Form applicants joining the Youth Scheme receive one extra ballot number. The applicant must be at least 18 by the application deadline and younger than 40 on April 30, 2026. Both eligible families and applicants applying alone can participate.

The young applicant must become an owner or joint owner of the purchased home. White Form youth families already participating in the elderly or newborn priority schemes cannot also join the Youth Scheme. Applicants therefore need to consider which arrangement fits their household under the published rules.

Another extra number is available to the same applicant who applied in both HOS 2023 and HOS 2024 without successfully buying a flat. This includes people invited to choose a home who ultimately did not complete a purchase, as well as those who never received a selection opportunity. Merely being listed as a family member in those earlier applications does not qualify a person for this benefit; applicants whose application was cancelled in either exercise are also excluded.

The ballot ranks the last two digits of application numbers and extra ballot numbers, from 00 to 99. A computer then randomly orders applicants within the same category who share the same final digits. For someone with an extra number, the better placed number determines their selection position.

The government's example makes the method concrete: if the digits 12 rank 20th in the ballot and the digits 34 rank 39th, an applicant holding both uses 12. An extra number gives another opportunity to obtain a better position within the applicant's category.

Green Form and White Form applicants share the allocation

The selection announcement sets the Green Form and White Form allocation ratio at 50:50. The official ballot guidance says selection appointments alternate between one Green Form applicant and one White Form applicant.

Green Form eligibility generally covers qualifying public rental housing tenants and people holding the relevant eligibility certificates, including certain applicants verified as eligible for public rental housing. White Form eligibility includes qualifying private housing households and some family members living in public or subsidised housing.

The standard White Form monthly income limits are HK$30,000 for an applicant applying alone and HK$60,000 for a household of two or more. Net asset limits are HK$615,000 and HK$1.23 million respectively. Net assets mean the value counted under the rules after relevant liabilities are deducted.

The December announcement kept the family income ceiling at the same level as HOS 2024. It also retained the asset limits, although the regular adjustment mechanism would have reduced the family asset ceiling to HK$1.22 million. Keeping it at HK$1.23 million leaves a HK$10,000 buffer compared with that calculated adjustment.

The eligibility rules allow specified mandatory retirement contributions to be deducted when calculating income, subject to the stated limits. Applicants must also satisfy the applicable requirements covering household composition, residence and residential property ownership.

What buyers can inspect, and what comes next

The Lok Fu Customer Service Centre will provide printed sales brochures and price lists through the selection period. Information will also be available through the Housing Authority and Housing Department's designated website.

Public materials include development models, models showing standard interior layouts, videos of sample flats, virtual interior tours and display panels. These give applicants ways to compare the space and layout of homes before their appointment. The price list and sales brochure provide the details needed to connect a particular unit with its cost and specifications.

The wider programme announced in December combines more than 8,300 HOS flats with more than 1,400 new Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme flats in Kowloon Bay, giving more than 9,700 new homes across the two schemes. The Kowloon Bay homes range from about 26 to 43.6 square metres and cost approximately HK$1.68 million to HK$3.54 million, at a 40% discount to assessed market values. Recovered Tenants Purchase Scheme flats are also included in the Green Form sales exercise.

The White Form Secondary Market Scheme separately offers 7,000 quotas. Those are permissions for eligible buyers to purchase qualifying existing subsidised homes through that scheme, rather than 7,000 newly built flats. Ho's forecast of more than 72,000 completions over five years covers the broader supply of subsidised flats for sale.

For HOS applicants, the next practical milestone is the invitation giving their appointment at Lok Fu. Their category establishes the first layer of priority, the ballot establishes their position within it, and the homes still available when they attend determine their purchase choices.

Key Points

• Flat selection is announced to start on October 21, with eligible applicants invited to Lok Fu by letter or email.
• The selection announcement lists nearly 7,000 new homes and about 400 resale flats; the December 2025 official announcement listed more than 8,300 HOS flats.
• New HOS homes in five locations range from about 281 to 560 square feet and cost approximately HK$1.5 million to HK$4.8 million.
• Eligible elderly and newborn households have 2,800 new flats reserved, while applicants applying alone have 700.
• Eligible young White Form applicants and qualifying unsuccessful applicants from HOS 2023 and HOS 2024 can receive extra ballot numbers.
• Green Form and White Form allocations are split equally, with selection alternating between the two groups.
• The authority's illustrative HK$2.8 million purchase produces a monthly mortgage repayment of about HK$11,300 under its stated assumptions.