More than 2,000 new subsidised homes in east Kowloon will go on sale this month, with asking prices ranging from HK$1.18 million to about HK$3.85 million (US$496,000).

The flats in Kai Chuen Court in Diamond Hill, the newest batch under the Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme, will be offered at 50 per discount of the market price exclusively to public housing tenants, or those likely to be allocated a public rental flat in a year.

Located on the site of the former historic Tai Hom Village, the estate is in a busy part of Kowloon with good traffic connections.

The 2,112 flats range from 184 to 481 sq ft, and the average selling price is HK$7,390 per square foot.

Interested parties can submit applications from May 28 to June 10. Forms will be available from Friday.

The same 50 per cent discount will also apply to 525 unsold units from the scheme’s previous batch of flats, at Ching Fu Court in Tsing Yi, and Dip Tsui Court in Chai Wan.

There was an unusually lacklustre response to the otherwise popular scheme last December, something officials blamed on gloomy economic prospects and the small size of those units.

Scott Leung Man-kwong, a member of the Housing Authority’s subsidised housing committee, welcomed the sale and hoped it would attract more applicants.

He expected flats at Kai Chuen Court to sell out because of its better location and bigger size of flats, compared to the projects in Tsing Yi and Chai Wan.

Separately, a source said the Housing Authority was planning to demolish four of its six flatted factory buildings within the next 1½ years to develop new public housing projects, including Yip On Factory Estate in Kowloon Bay, Sui Fai Factory Estate in Fo Tan, Kwai On Factory Estate at Kwai Chung, and Wang Cheong Factory Estate in Cheung Sha Wan.

These industrial buildings, built between 1979 and 1984, have 4,822 units in total. An earlier study said three of the plots could produce more than 3,000 public housing units in 2031.

The authority will announce demolition arrangements including compensation next week.