LAND AND HOUSING
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18 classroom school, two clinics, a post office, two estate offices, 72 shops and an Assembly Hall (at North Point) to seat 500 people. The total cost of these two estates was roughly $40 million.
The Authority's present building programme consists of three estates at So Uk, Ma Tau Wai and Choi Hung, all in different districts of Kowloon. 15,010 flats will be built on these estates, to house approximately 88,300 people, in blocks ranging from 8 to 20 storeys and with flats suitable for families of 4 to 10 persons. The total cost of these projects will be around $122 million. The So Uk Estate is nearest to completion and 2,249 flats to house some 14,300 people have already been finished, together with two 24 classroom schools and 38 shops. The first tenants in this estate moved in during October 1960. The estate will eventually contain 5,300 flats and a population of nearly 33,000 people by the end of 1962. It also contains an estate office, kerosene service_store, post office, day nursery and a community hall. Rents range from $48 to $138 a month.
Piling has been completed and construction started on an estate at Ma Tau Wai of 2,114 flats for 12,600 people. This estate has been designed by the Housing Authority's own architectural staff. The Choi Hung Estate will be the Authority's largest and its 7,586 flats will house 43,700 people in blocks of 7 and 20 storeys. It will also contain two secondary and three primary schools, a post office and about 50 shops. Site works and piling are now in hand and the whole estate should be completed by the middle of 1964. It will house families ranging from 4 to 10 persons.
Three more schemes are now being planned, one at Kwun Tong, one at Tsuen Wan, and a third at Sai Wan, near the Kennedy Town estate. It is hoped to start work on at least one of these estates during 1961.
The two estates already completed together with the three now under construction will eventually provide modern housing for 105,000 people in 17,600 flats for a capital outlay of $165 million. Even so, this large programme, spread over six years, will provide housing for but one year's natural increase in Hong Kong's population. The average rent per person in the North Point Estate is about $22 a month, but by careful attention to construction costs it is expected that rents per person on the Ma Tau Wai estate will