'Public welcomes private subsidised home plan'
Housing Secretary Winnie Ho on Sunday said the scheme to encourage the private sector to build subsidised housing has been generally welcomed by the public.  Her comments came after the government announced a pilot scheme to encourage private developers to build flats on government sites or on their own rezoned land. All the units would have to be sold at 35 percent discount to the market price.  The minister said the price will be slightly higher than other subsidised housing schemes but that the public response is good.  "The units will be sold at 65 percent of market rate, while those under the Home Ownership Scheme are sold at 62 percent of market rate this year," she told a Commercial Radio programme. "The response from the public is good. They are willing to consider the units, given that designs and facilities may be different than those sold under other schemes." Ho said the government gathered a lot of information before deciding on the discount rate. "Cheaper is better for the public. Of course it's better to have a bigger discount. But if the price is set too low, the private developers may find this scheme not attractive, and the land may be left idle again. Therefore, we gathered a lot of information in order to strike a balance." The pilot scheme is aimed at speeding up the supply of subsidised housing, with Ho saying at its launch that it may shorten the completion time of projects by up to 10 months.