The "Sale of Green Form Home Ownership Scheme Units 2020/21" began to purchase units at the end of last month, including the sale of some of the reclaimed units of the "Tenants Purchase Scheme" public housing estates.
A few days ago, a buyer who bought a mid-level unit in King Tao House, King Lam Estate, Tseung Kwan O, found that the surrounding environment of the new home was extremely harsh. The cause was that the owner of the adjacent unit suspected that it was hoarding debris that caused a large number of cockroaches to breed.
Recently, after receiving a lawyer’s notice that they could sign the sale and purchase agreement, the buyer involved was even more nervous. They did not want to waste the chance of being selected for "rental purchase" or lose the deposit, but they were also unwilling to have the Housing Department not arrange for their own prior inspection of the unit. .
The Housing Authority introduced the precautions of the information websites of Jinglin Village and similar flats, although it was mentioned twice that "it is recommended that prospective purchasers go to the estate/relevant estates for on-site inspections for the purpose of this estate, its surrounding area environment and nearby public facilities Have a better understanding" and "Under any circumstances or at any time, prospective buyers should not use or be influenced by any content, information or concept of this photo and video to decide to purchase or when to purchase any residential property", However, before the application was opened, it had stated that it would not arrange for buyers to visit the recovery units under the "rental purchase" plan this time. As a result, buyers were required to decide whether to purchase or not without the results of on-site inspections.
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The epidemic restricts travel and stimulates ``Yunsuilou''
At present, the "Notices for Buying Second-hand Residential Properties" published by the Consumer Council and the Estate Agents Authority, the first content is to remind buyers that they should go to the property in person to learn about the actual living environment.
However, in fact, the buyer may not necessarily be able to fulfill this limited right, because Article 10 of the "Estate Agency Practices (General Liability and Hong Kong Residential Properties) Regulation" only requires that the estate agent licensee "shall assist in arranging the buyer to inspect and inspect the residential property. The buyer must also accompany the buyer for this inspection and inspection, but if the buyer otherwise instructs, it is an exception", but also pointed out that "without the prior consent of the seller of the residential property, no one can arrange for inspection and inspection of the property." Therefore, if the buyer agrees not to inspect or the seller does not allow inspection, there will be no pre-transaction inspection of the unit.
In the past, there were no pre-transaction inspections of second-hand residential properties. Most of them were due to the fact that the unit itself had a joint lease and did not want to disturb the tenants, or that the buyer had the intention of investing and speculating instead of buying a property for self-occupation.
However, with social events and the new crown epidemic affecting travel in recent years, photos, videos and even "virtual reality" and other "cloud viewing" methods have begun to appear on the market. These options may naturally attract buyers and sellers to use They replace in-person inspections.
Of course, there will be no joint tenancy agreement for the “rental purchase” tail units sold by the Housing Department, and the Department’s response to media enquiries also confirmed that this arrangement takes into account the fact that the social distancing measures have not been revoked during the epidemic, so it switched to short videos and photo albums to assist in quasi-buying. Home selection unit.
Buyer inspection rights should be protected
As early as 2001, when the Law Reform Commission consulted the public on improving the information provided to buyers of local completed residential properties, it mentioned the issue of "right of inspection" for buyers of second-hand properties.
At that time, the consultation document cited the Australian Capital Territory’s standard sales contract as an example. It suggested that second-hand property buyers could be considered to “inspect the property more than once before the completion of the sale.” It also pointed out that “in order to provide buyers with better protection, an ideal approach This is to allow buyers to have the right to inspect the property under any circumstances. No matter whether the buyer purchases a vacant possession property or a leased property, they should be treated the same."
However, after less than three months of consultation, the Law Reform Commission’s report finally maintained its recommendation in 2002 that “the purchase and sale of second-hand properties should not be subject to inspection rights. It is especially impractical for properties sold under lease," and it is also proposed to legislate to grant a three-working-day "cooling-off period" for temporary sale and purchase contracts for second-hand residential units.
Unfortunately, this proposal has not been implemented after nearly 20 years. Moreover, the consultation documents and reports have long pointed out that "even if there is a cooling-off period, it does not necessarily mean that buyers will have the opportunity to inspect the property during the cooling-off period." Therefore, the "right of inspection" of second-hand property buyers in Hong Kong still has little protection.
In addition to speeding up the "cooling-off period" of temporary sale and purchase agreements for second-hand residential property units, the government should also examine whether it is necessary to strengthen the protection of buyers' "inspection rights" in response to various alternatives to "cloud viewing houses" in the market.
Especially when this situation has spread to public housing that is officially regulated and has no existing lease restrictions, the authorities can no longer continue to use "difficult to implement" or other excuses to neglect the matter, otherwise they will directly take the lead in following the market to exploit and buy. There is no difference in family rights.
Abandoning the "first-hand property vacancy tax" is a lack of courage. Hong Kong must have its own real estate tax reform. Complex and difficult. It is not an excuse that the Transport and Housing Bureau must regulate overseas property purchases.