The first four "light public housing" projects - out of 30,000 such units located in Fan Ling, Yuen Long and Tuen Mun - will be built within five years.
According to a document submitted by the Housing Bureau yesterday, the projects will be built in urban sites in the New Territories, where light public housing will have more vertical space in order to provide more units.
With preparatory work for the projects such as site investigation under way, it has preliminarily identified four areas, which are located near Fan Ling golf course, Yuen Long's Fairview Park, as well as a site next to Castle Peak Hospital and Ching Chung light rail station in Tuen Mun.
According to current estimates, the Architectural Services Department will officially start part of the construction work next year, and the first batch of more than 1,000 units are expected to be completed between 2024 and 2025 at the earliest. The rest of the units would be completed in phases between 2025 and 2027, the Housing Bureau said.
The bureau said that based on the preliminary design, the light public housing units will have floor areas from around 10 square meters to 30 square meters, and the estimated construction cost for each square meter would be around HK$21,000.
Authorities are planning to invite organizations that have adequate scalability, management capability and experiences to operate the light public housing projects.
They suggested that a lump sum of about HK$26.79 billion should be granted for the estimated design and construction fees, and HK$600 million for infrastructure.
For additional manpower in promoting the project, authorities estimate that such expenditure could cost about HK$4.7 billion.
The units are mainly for those who have been queuing for public rental housing for three years or more, and family applicants will be given priority, while continuing to wait for their rental housing.
Depending on the size and location, rents will range from HK$570 to HK$2,650, and the rental range is about 90 percent of the newly built public housing units.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu proposed the light public housing project in his maiden policy address last month.