Wang Fung Court owners began choosing new permanent homes on Tuesday under a special rehousing program after the catastrophic blaze ravaged the housing estate in Hong Kong's Tai Po district in November and left 168 people dead.

Around 35 households attended the flat selection session under the Special Sales Exercise (SSE) program at the Hong Kong Housing Authority's Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme Sales Unit (GSH Sales Office) in Kwun Tong, according to a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government statement.

The first batch of households and succeeding batches were chosen through a computer-generated random ballot on Sept 15. About 1,700 owners have chosen to participate in the SSE and the entire flat selection process is expected to be completed by the end of November.

“With empathy as the priority, the government will allow ample time to explain and assist applicants throughout the entire flat selection process so that they can make their selections smoothly with complete reassurance,” the statement reads.

The government has reserved over 4,400 flats across ten HA and Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) development projects for owners who have sold their WFC titles to the government to purchase or to participate in the "flat-for-flat" arrangement.

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As the number of flats reserved far exceeds the number of WFC owners participating in the SSE, owners with different flat selection priorities will enjoy abundant and diversified choices, according to the statement.

The ten projects are in Kowloon Bay, Kai Tak, Kam Tin, Tseung Kwan O, Ping Shan, Tung Chung, Tai Po, Fanling and Kwun Tong, with saleable areas from about 26.0 to about 52.0 square meters.

To help applicants gain a better understanding of different projects, a sales exhibition for the SSE was set up at GSH Sales Office, featuring exhibition panels and other information on each development project.

If an owner's WFC title has not yet been assigned to the government, a new SSE flat will be reserved for them during the selection stage. The HA or HKHS will sign an agreement for sale and purchase or a Provisional Agreement for Sale and Purchase for the new flat only after the assignment is completed and executed.

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After the deadline for WFC owners to accept the government's acquisition offer passed in August, 1,971 owners (99.3 percent) from Blocks A to H had signed and returned the "Letter of Acceptance" to confirm their intention to sell their titles to the government. About 1,700 of them chose to join the SSE.