The Civil Servants' Co-operative Building Society Scheme (CBS Scheme) is an old form of civil servant housing benefit. Under the CBS Scheme, the Government would grant land at a concessionary premium of one-third of the full market value of the land concerned and offer Government loans to enable eligible civil servants to build residential buildings for their own occupation through forming cooperative societies. The legal titles of the land and the buildings are held by the respective Civil Servants' Co-operative Building Society (CBS) and its members have the right to use the flats only.
To obtain the legal titles of CBS flats, a CBS may, upon obtaining the consent of 75% of its members, applies for dissolution by way of the Modification of Lease Approach subject to specific alienation restrictions. Individual CBS members may, after the dissolution of the CBS, acquire titles to their properties and land by deeds of assignment.
After one has obtained the title and the owners’ corporation has been formed, a CBS property owner can apply to remove the alienation restrictions as stipulated under the lease and pay the outstanding two-thirds land premium.
More details concerning the procedures and estimated time for processing the application are available at the Application Form and Leaflet.
In June 2020, the Government has reviewed the assessment basis of premium for removing alienation restrictions in relation to properties built under the CBS scheme and decided to accept the premium will generally be assessed at Existing Use Land Value basis as provided in the lease conditions. However, such assessment basis is not applicable if any notice of application for an order to sell the lot where the property situates for the purposes of the redevelopment of the lot pursuant to the provisions of the Land (Compulsory Sale for Redevelopment) Ordinance (Cap. 545) is or has been filed by any person to the Lands Tribunal on or before the day when the relevant application for removal of alienation restrictions is received by the Lands Department. More details concerning the revised assessment basis are available in the Information Note.
