A Housing Authority committee on Friday approved regular sales of recovered flats at public housing estates, mainly targeting buyers who are eligible for the "green form" scheme.

Under the Tenants Purchase Scheme, homes that become empty are offered for sale at a discount to people living in other public rental units.

Recovered units will be offered for sale as part of the Home Ownership Scheme and Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme, and applications for a new batch of flats would start in the middle of this year.

Authorities said the scheme targets individuals with "green form" status, but unsold units would be available for applicants under the Express Flat Allocation Scheme.

Cleresa Wong, who chairs the authority's subsidised housing committee, told reporters such recovered flats have been very popular. She also said she's not worried about speculation.

Separately, about 24,100 public rental units are estimated to be available for allocation in 2023-24, according to provisional figures approved by the committee.

Around 8,500 of them are estimated to be new flats, with the remaining being recovered units. Almost three-quarters of the units, or about 18,000, will go to public housing applicants.