HK$78 million from internal resources. The govern- ment provides land at one-third of the estimated market value.
The policy of the Authority has always been to fix rents for new estates as low as possible. This means they are well below the market value for comparable private accommodation. Rents cover only the direct annual expenditure of each estate including a charge for amortisation of the capital cost and a small budgeted surplus to finance future schemes. In order to accelerate its programme of building new estates to house many more people in housing need, the Authority has adopted a schedule of rent adjustments which entails a rent increase of about 10 per cent at intervals of not less than two years. At the end of 1970, rents ranging from 25 cents to 39 cents per square foot per month were charged for domestic accommodation, depending on the location and capital cost of the estate.
The Housing Authority maintains a combined waiting list from which to fill vacancies in both Housing Authority and government low-cost housing estates, present or future. At the end of 1970, this list contained over 160,000 applications, of which some 24,000 had been passed after investigation for allocation of flats.
Hong Kong Housing Society
The Hong Kong Housing Society, formed in 1948, was the pioneer in the field of providing people of low income with better housing. The first estate was built in 1952. The society's 15 estates house about 110,000 people. One more estate is under construction. When this estate is completed within the next five years the society will have housed some 148,000 people in 23,500 flats. The housing schemes are financed from government loans and self-generated funds.
TEMPORARY HOUSING
According to the March 1971 Census, there were some 187,000 squatters within the main metropolitan area, which includes Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung in the New Territories, and some 108,000 squatters in the rest of the New Territories.
Some 100,000 squatters in the metropolitan area and about 20,000 in the New Territories will be displaced by development clearances and rehoused in the next six years.
PRIVATE HOUSING
Investment in new private residential building exceeded $4,800 million in the years 1952 to 1970. At the end of 1970 domestic accommodation in the urban areas owned by the private sector comprised 196,300 tenement floors, 59,900 small flats, 23,600 large flats and 1,000 houses.
Rent Control
Rent control, instituted immediately after the Pacific war, was embodied in the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance of 1947, which restricted rents in pre-war buildings by reference to pre-war levels, while exempt- ing new and substantially reconstructed buildings
HONG KONG GOVERNMENT INFORMATION SERVICES PUBLICATION. August, 1971.
from control. By 1954 permitted increases in standard rents reached 55 per cent for domesti premises and 150 per cent for business premises. There have been no further increases for controlled premises.
The Rent Increases (Domestic Premises) Control Ordinance was enacted in June 1970 for the purpose of providing security of tenure for tenants of most post-war premises and preventing unreasonable rent increases. These controls were introduced because of a temporary shortage of accommodation, which was causing sharp increases in rents in the private
sector.
Multi-storey Building Management
Multiple ownership of large multi-storey buildings, which are a prominent feature of Hong Kong and Kowloon, has given rise to serious management problems, particularly in connection with the main- tenance of the common parts of these buildings. Legislation was enacted in 1970 to enable the owners of individual flats in a building to form themselves into a corporation in order to provide for the manage- ment of the common areas. The new legislation makes it possible for conscientious flat owners to form a management corporation even when some of the owners are unwilling to do so.
Urban Renewal
An area of about 250 acres in the western district of Hong Kong Island has been designated as an urban renewal district, and urban renewal is already going ahead in part of this district, known as the pilot scheme area. This covers some 13 acres between Hollywood Road and Queen's Road Central. Most post-war buildings will be allowed to remain, but for the rest, the area contains some of the oldest and most dilapidated slum property in Hong Kong and this will be compulsorily acquired and cleared. Small lots will be amalgamated into larger sites and sold for redevelopment. A proportion of the land acquired will be retained for open space and other public uses such as schools, clinics and hawker bazaars.
SUMMARY OF STATISTICS
(based on provisional figures from the 1971 Census)
People
Resettlement estates
943,525
Resettlement cottage areas
48,575
Government low-cost housing
estates
187,135
Housing Authority estates
193,789
Housing Society estates
Squatters
109,960
63,852
Kowloon and New Kowloon
106,263
Tsuen Wan
17,508
Remainder of the
107,910 295,533
Hong Kong Island
New Territories
Printed by the Government Printer, Hong Kong.