LAND AND HOUSING
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programme and arrangements for those who do not have any priority for accommodation. Provision is made for homeless people, who are ineligible for resettlement, to erect their huts under licence in more remote areas where they will be free from disturbance for some years to come. The Resettlement Ordinance was amended during the year to give effect to the revised resettlement policy.
The New Territories Administration is responsible for the control of squatters in the New Territories, with the exception of Tsuen Wan district where control has been transferred to the Resettlement Department. The more accessible parts of the New Territories are regularly patrolled and are divided into prohibited and non- prohibited areas. In prohibited areas such as the margins of roads, development areas, and land exposed to flooding, no new domestic huts are allowed. In non-prohibited areas temporary structures may be built with a permit from the District Office. Outside Tsuen Wan there are as yet no completed resettlement estates in the New Territories, so when existing structures have to be cleared from areas required for road widening, water supply pipelines or other development, the occupants are normally given assistance in the form of building materials and rice to enable them to rebuild their huts on suitable sites elsewhere. An exception is Tsuen Wan where, during 1965, 25,702 persons cleared from areas required for development were resettled direct into local resettlement estates.
HOUSING
Private enterprise has provided new accommodation for about two million people in Hong Kong during the past 10 years, a large number of them being families who have had to be re-housed as a result of old buildings being demolished. At the end of 1965 rated domestic accommodation in the urban areas (excluding resettlement estates) comprised 126,795 tenement floors, 31,444 small flats, 16,086 large flats, 977 houses and 27,961 low-cost housing units. Domestic accommodation predominates in many new building projects, but during 1965 the real estate market for this type of property was depressed, with the supply of certain types of flats, etc being temporarily in excess of demand. In March. 1965, there were 11,455 unoccupied domestic premises of all types compared with 8,055 in March 1964. However, these statistics must be viewed against the very high level of construction of such