(a) Cottage Areas
CHAPTER VIII
FINANCE
81. Site permit fees in cottage areas were fixed in 1952 at a low arbitrary figure. They were increased on 1st April, 1956, to the rates now provided in the Third Schedule of the Resettlement Regulations, 1958. On 31st March, 1962, 2,830 cottages were owned by Government; of these 301 were built or purchased by Government, and the remainder were gifts from the voluntary agencies which had built them. These cottages are maintained by the Department and rented to settlers at $10 or $15 a month, according to the site of the cottage.
(b) Resettlement Estates
82. The rent for a standard room of 120 square feet in the resettle- ment estates was fixed at $14 a month in 1954, when the first multi- storey buildings were under construction. This figure was calculated to cover all annually recurrent costs and to provide for the recovery in forty years, with compound interest at 34% p.a., of the original capital cost, including land at half the upset price.
83. The cost of construction, including site formation and piling, of a seven-storey block containing 432 rooms, each of 120 square feet, was then $780,000 or about $1,806 a room, and to this figure was added the sum of $230,000 for a site of 23,000 square feet, and $15,600 for supervision by the Public Works Department (2% of the cost of construction) making a total of $1,025,600 or $2,374 a room. On the basis of these figures and on the assumption that annually recurrent costs would amount to $17,200 for each block, the rent for each room was assessed at $13 a month, to which $1 a month was added for water.
84. The rent of self-contained flats, the first block of which was completed in June 1957, was calculated on the same basis, with the addition of rates, which are included in the rents and paid 'en bloc' by the Department. These rents are $45 a month for a flat of 240 square feet and $65 a month for a flat of 360 square feet. In April 1961, a new type of flat was introduced at the end of each wing of improved Mark II Resettlement 'H' Blocks on the first to sixth floors. These have a floor space of 310 square feet plus a private balcony. There are a
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