126
LAND AND HOUSING
Clearances undertaken during the year freed 120.08 acres of land for development. A total of $275,373.86 was paid as ex-gratia compensation to people who had opened up land for cultivation without legal tenure before October 1954 and to pigbreeders. 326 shops and workshops were cleared, of which 211 were resettled and 115 were found to be ineligible for resettlement. In addition, 87 factories had to be cleared. Of these, 42 were resettled into resettlement factory estates, while 27 were not eligible for resettle- ment and 18 rejected resettlement.
HOUSING
The most significant factor in the provision of housing in Hong Kong in recent years has been the steady increase in the proportion of the population living in government and government-aided housing, which is now about 40 per cent. On the other hand there has been a sharp decrease in the amount of private domestic build- ing during the past two or three years, as compared with the period of over-development up to 1966. As the demand for accommoda- tion of this kind has remained high, the number of unoccupied domestic premises has fallen steadily, from 14,496 in January 1968 to 7,282 in January 1969 and to 4,182 in August 1969, the lowest figure since 1963. The resulting shortage was reflected, in the latter part of the year, by some increases in rents, particularly for higher-grade accommodation, and on the tendency of landlords to recover premises at the end of a lease for sale. At the same time, there was evidence in the increasing number of new projects sub- mitted to the Building Authority and the increase in private land transactions that the property market was reviving rapidly. It can therefore be expected that there will be an appreciable increase in the amount of new domestic accommodation coming available in the reasonably near future and an easing in the present acute shortage of domestic premises.
At the end of 1969, domestic accommodation in the urban areas (excluding resettlement and government-aided housing schemes) comprised 191,000 tenement floors, 56,200 small flats, 22,900 large flats, and 1,050 houses.
The Hong Kong Building and Loan Agency Limited was established in 1964 on the recommendation of the Finance of