LAND AND HOUSING
135
The new estate at Ping Shek, in Kowloon, was originally designed to have five 50-storey tower blocks each containing 768 flats. This plan was abandoned in favour of a more conventional design for 28 storey blocks, with two low blocks. It retains the original layout which gives more open space than has been possible in other estates. It will house about 29,000 people in 4,570 flats.
The authority's schemes will provide housing for a total of 218,381 people in 34,891 flats at a capital cost of $335 million. Of this $260 million will be provided by government loans and $75 million through self-financing. By the end of 1967 the authority had spent $247 million and its rent roll had reached $27 million. Sites for estates are provided by the government at one-third the estimated market value. Rents are calculated on the basis of es- timated working expenses and amortization of capital expenditure on buildings and land over 40 years at 5 per cent per annum com- pound interest. They range from $48 a month for a four-person flat to $139 for a 14-person flat. Tenants are selected on the basis of housing need.
In 1962 the authority undertook to manage all properties built under the government low-cost housing programme, which is de- signed to provide accommodation for people who earn less than $500 a month and who are living in insanitary or overcrowded conditions. As with the authority's other projects, these estates consist of multi-storey blocks of flats each containing a living-room, private balcony, cooking place and a water point. Rents range from $35 a month for a four-person room to $80 for a 10-person room.
J
At the end of the year seven low-cost housing estates, providing accommodation for 83,197 people in 16,808 flats, were fully com- pleted or nearing completion. Work on two other estates had started. The original intention was to house 20,000 people a year, but in October 1967 this policy was revised. The government accepted a recommendation of the Housing Board that the low- cost housing programme should allow for 350,000 individual units (each unit representing 35 square feet of living space for an adult) to be built in the six-year period from April 1, 1966 to March 31, 1972. This programme, which is dependent on the availability of finance and of suitable sites, is subject to annual review by the Housing Board.