LAND AND HOUSING
197
Tai Sin Resettlement Estate. Each of these flats has its own bathroom, kitchen, and small private balcony, the total floor space being 240 square feet and the rent, inclusive of rates and water charges, being $45 a month. Another similar block of self-contained flats is under construction at Wong Tai Sin. These blocks are essentially the same in their basic construction as the other multi-storey blocks, and they dem- onstrate the adaptability of this form of accommodation, since all blocks now occupied in separate rooms can ulti- mately be converted to a similar standard of self-contained flats.
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The second new development was the completion at Cheung Sha Wan towards the end of the year of a large five-storey factory and workshop building, with 94,000 square feet of floor space, for the resettlement of a great variety of squatter workshops and small factories using power-driven machinery. The rents vary from floor to floor, the average being $55 a month (inclusive of rates) for a unit of about 200 square feet. Receipts from rents will, it is estimated, be adequate not only to cover all recurrent costs but to provide for the recovery of the initial capital expendi- ture in 21 years with interest at 5%. The completion of this workshop and factory building is part of the policy to assist squatters to continue, with a minimum of interruption during resettlement, in their former occupations, thus helping them to go on earning a living and to maintain their self- sufficiency so far as possible. For the same reason a large number of the ground floor rooms in resettlement estates are now used for many types of shops and businesses, includ- ing restaurants, cafes, meat shops and simple workshops.
During 1957 the development of four of the 14 Cottage Resettlement Areas of the old type, consisting of terraces of single-storey buildings, was continued and 752 new cottages were built, mostly by charitable organizations. Their popula- tion increased from 72,843 to 76,420 and they are now almost fully developed.