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HOUSING AND LAND
self-contained community of 328 000 people. To be completed by 1996, the town will occupy an area of 1 380 hectares made up of 867 hectares of urban fringe and 513 hectares of town area, of which 445 hectares are formed from borrow areas and reclamation. The town will be supported by an external transport infrastructure comprising a new road link by tunnel from east Kowloon, the possible extension of the Mass Transit Railway from Kwun Tong, and the upgrading of Po Lam Road.
Steady progress has been maintained on the redevelopment of Sai Kung town, with the Hong Kong Housing Society progressing with its rural housing scheme. Studies are to be undertaken on the servicing facilities of the various village centres in the district and on town landscape and recreation.
A 14-month development study of the northwestern New Territories commenced during the year. This study will look into a comprehensive transport and land use strategy for the sub-region and will be completed by April, 1983.
Allocations
The Housing Authority possesses one of the world's largest public housing stocks com- prising 480 000 domestic units in 107 housing estates. Flats are of widely varying sizes, amenities and rent levels. In addition to newly completed flats, applicants can choose from older units vacated by tenants either transferring to other estates, buying a Home Ownership flat or moving into the private sector. During the year, 35 100 flats were allocated to 155 000 people who qualified under one of the following categories: waiting list applicants; development clearance cases; victims of fire and natural disasters; occupants of huts and other structures in a dangerous location; tenants of early housing estates under redevelopment schemes; tenants of early housing estates under external transfer to relieve overcrowding and create primary housing; compassionate cases recommended by the Social Welfare Department or the Medical and Health Department; former tenants of dangerous tenements; residents affected by the re-use of temporary housing areas; and junior civil servants and pensioners. Some 7 200 flats were allocated to families rendered homeless by development clearances, while the majority, 15 400, went to waiting list applicants, of whom 320 were in the special elderly category.
Units recovered in the Mark I and II estates are re-let as primary housing to meet the shortfall of temporary housing spaces. During the year, 3 200 of these units were allocated to families affected by clearances or natural disasters or families in other rehousing categories, who did not qualify for permanent housing.
Any family of three people, or any two related or three unrelated elderly people, or a married couple may register on the waiting list. Duplicate applications are cancelled at the time of registration. The waiting list is long: since 1967, 524 900 families have applied, of whom 103 400 have been rehoused and 263 000 found to be ineligible for public housing. Applications are considered in the order of registration and in accordance with the districts of choice, but accommodation is only offered to those found eligible, on investigation, in respect of their living space and conditions and whose family income is within a scale related to family size. The income limits for each household size are reviewed regularly and adjusted in line with inflation. Waiting times vary from eight to nine years for central urban locations to two to three years for new estates in outlying new towns. Applicants whose applications are cancelled for reasons of income or living space exceeding the limits may request reinstatement of their applications 12 months after the cancellation and within five years if there are substantiated changes in their family circumstances which render their applications eligible at that time.