STATISTICAL BUREAU NEEDED
The Colony of Hong Kong has in the past few years acquired considerable importance as probably the most pros. perous trading centre in the Far East and, because of its isolated position, the centre of British culture. Because of its extremely rapid metamorphosis from a dead city at the time of the Japanese surrender to the very thriving metro- polis it is today, a tremendous amount of commercial and social activity has been involved.
In spite of the amount of organization and planning that was required to keep up with this development, it is surprising how little information is available as to exactly what has been done and what remains to be done to maintain Hong Kong's newly acquired status.
We, ourselves, in spite of our wide interests in building and construction work in Hong Kong in all its multifarious phases, did not realize how complete was the dearth of statis- tical information available in Hong Kong that could be used as a basis for organized planning of immediate requirements and future operations.
What woke us to this deplorable state of affairs was the questionnaire we received through the American Consulate- General requesting certain information regarding housing and construction in Hong Kong, which information was to be used in a world study by the Housing & Home Finance Agency in America.
We reproduce below the questionnaire in full, and we invite our readers to study it. We feel sure that it will be readily appreciated how impossible it is to obtain any authentic information in Hong Kong along the lines presented in this questionnaire and how useful it would be from many points of view were such information available.
We have been requested by the Department of State, Washington, D.C. on behalf of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, to prepare a report on housing and city, town and country planning. Similar studies are being made in the various areas throughout the world.
This information has many important uses. Information and advice on housing matters was sought from and furnished by HHFA to some 60 missions, deputations and important technical visitors from other countries during the past twelve months. Making the experience of the United States usefully available to these visitors requires adaptation based on as thorough a knowledge as possible of housing and planning conditions abroad. These major requests are in addition to a large volume of inquiries received in correspondence from many sources in foreign countries in every quarter of the globe.
Because of your association with the building trade and real estate developments in the Colony, we feel that you are best qualified to furnish us with data which will aid us in the preparation of this report. The attached outline has been prepared as an indication of the type of information which we intend to include in the study.
1.
Housing Situation
a. What are the causes of housing shortage, and what steps, if any, are being taken by governmental or other sources to improve the situation?
b. What is the best estimate of number of new dwelling
units required?
c. What are the most prevalent types of structures used
for dwelling units?
d. What is the present level and trend of building costs?
2. Ownership
a. If data available, indicate what proportion of families
own homes, and what proportion rent.
b. Are statistics available on the mortgage obligations
of home owners?
3.
4.
Construction
a. What construction methods are used?
developments are there?
What new
b. Are prefabricated houses in use? Of what material?
Are the materials local or imported?
c. Are prefabricated houses imported, and from what
sources?
d. What national governmental regulations apply to
housing construction?
e. What restrictive practices are there?
Financing
a. What financing arrangements are employed in public
and private residential construction?
b. If financial aid provided by the government for
construction? For repairs and improvements? what extent and with what results?
To
c. What are the rates of interest on money borrowed for housing construction, when borrowed from the government? From private sources? How do they compare with commercial interest rates?
5. Sales, Price Levels, and Rents of Dwelling Units a. What are the present levels and trends of sales prices
of houses? Of rentals?
b. What rent controls are in operation?
6. Building Materials
7.
8.
9.
a. What types of building materials are in use, and what are the principal sources (domestic or foreign) of each?
City, Town and Country Planning
a. To what extent has city, town or country planning been undertaken, and by what governmental units? With what results?
Slums, Slum Clearance
a. What is the prevalence of slums and what projects or major activities, governmental or otherwise, are in progress toward their elimination?
Government Housing Policy
a. What is the present policy toward housing, and how was it formulated, i.e., by legislative or administrative bodies?
b. What is the government's current housing program,
if any?
c. What responsibilities with respect to housing, town and country planning lie with the national govern- ment and what with the several subordinate and local government? Where does the initiative lie in principal housing and planning matters?
d. Are there any governmental or other organizations specializing in housing research? What fields are covered? Are the results made available, and if so, how?
e. What agencies in the national government deal with
housing and planning matters?
10. Legislation
11.
a. Forward at least 5 copies of text of each item of
principal housing legislation.
b. What important new proposals are under con-
sideration or pending for action?
Publication
a. Are any publications available, such as "Architectural Forum", "Journal of Housing", "Reports of Govern- ment Departments Responsible for Housing"?
STEEL BROTHERS & CO., LTD.
INCORPORATED IN ENGLAND
BRANCHES
INDIA PAKISTAN BURMA
TRANSJORDAN
LEBANON
BRITISH GUIANA
CHINA JAPAN
ISRAEL
CYPRUS
TANGANYIKA
CEYLON THAILAND
ITALY
CUBA
CEMENT
MACHINERY
Branch in China:
P. O. BOX No. 81, KUNMING,
TEAK
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
BUILDING MATERIALS
Head Office for Hong Kong and China:
SHELL HOUSE, HONG KONG.
TELEPHONES: 32839, 23616.
HARDWARE
CABLES: "STEEL"
21
YUNNAN