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As for pre-war domestic tenancies, the aim is
to bring their rents closer to the minimum permitted rents
of near-comparable early post-war premises. For pre-war
premises, standard rent for the purpose of the Ordinance is
their rent as at 25th December 1941. Current permitted rent
is set at 21 times this level and it is now proposed to make
a modest increase to 27 times the standard rent.
This change would result in an average increase
of about 29% or $234 per month on current permitted rents
and would affect only about 2,500 domestic units. It would
serve to bring their average permitted rents also up to 55%
of prevailing market rents.
Last of the main provisions in the Bill are those
for fees to be payable to the Commissioner of Rating and
Valuation for processing certain applications. These fees,
which would be fixed by the Financial Secretary, are proposed principally to recover some of the Government's costs. The
Bill also seeks to clarify the powers of the Lands Tribunal
in certain landlord and tenant matters. Other minor changes
feature in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill, so I will
not rehearse them.
Sir, public reaction to the Bill since its
publication on 26th April has been muted, and there seems
to be broad acceptance of these rather mild proposals. They
aim to take another step along the road of phasing out rent
control, but the step is a moderate one since we are always
conscious of the need to avoid hardship. It is never easy
to please both landlords and tenants, but in the present
circumstances I believe that the proposals contained in the Bill constitute a reasonable compromise.
Sir, I move the debate be now adjourned.