HOUSING
The authority's members are appointed by the Governor for a two-year term. Chaired by a non-official, the authority comprises 20 other non-officials and four official members. Its nine standing committees, on which sit 46 non-official committee members, deal with various aspects of housing policies such as development, building, commercial properties, establishment and finance, home ownership, management and operations, allocation and standards of vacant flats as well as matters concerning tenancy appeals and administrative complaints. Many of the members of the authority and the committees also serve the Hong Kong community as executive, legislative, urban or regional councillors, or as members of the Heung Yee Kuk, district boards, area committees, mutual aid committees and other government boards and committees. Some members are themselves residents of public housing estates.
In addition, an ad hoc committee on housing for the elderly completed an overall review of the provision of housing for the elderly in June 1994. The special committee on the clearance of the Kowloon Walled City, established in January 1987, is expected to end its work soon. The authority will continue to provide homes at affordable rents and prices for the public. Under an arrangement which came into effect in April 1988, the government continues to ensure the availability of funds required for the housing programmes as set out in the Long Term Housing Strategy.
As at March 31, 1994, the government's capital investment and contribution to housing stood at about $153 billion. This comprised permanent capital of $26 billion, contributions to domestic housing of $116 billion and non-domestic equity of $11 billion.
In the 1993-94 financial year, recurrent expenditure on the authority's domestic operations totalled $7,544 million, covering mainly management and maintenance expenses (including a one-off depreciation adjustment of $1,121 million), while income from domestic operations was $6,430 million, resulting in a deficit of $1,114 million. After paying interest of $936 million on the government's permanent capital, the deficit increased to $2,050 million.
The authority was able to partly offset this deficit from the net income derived from its non-domestic operations. Over this period, these operations generated a net surplus of $309 million (including a one-off depreciation adjustment of $744 million), after payment of interest of $183 million on the government's permanent capital and payment of a $492 million dividend to the government.
An operating deficit of $3,225 million was incurred on home ownership operations. This deficit was determined after charging $15,660 million for Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) land values, as required under the existing financial arrangements. However, this amount is not required to be paid in cash (except for $1,387 million HOS land costs) but will be retained as an additional government contribution to domestic housing. A net positive cash inflow of $11,048 million was therefore generated from the home ownership operations.
The authority self-financed all its capital expenditure, which amounted to $6,791 million, in 1993-94.
Rent Policy
Rents for domestic premises in public housing estates have been maintained at low levels.
This has been possible, despite increasing operating and maintenance costs, as a result of government subsidies in the form of free land and average low interest rates.
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