approximately 111% higher on a square footage basis. Monthly rents inclusive of rates for those estates located in the urban areas range from $29 for a four person room of 106 square feet to $67.50 for a seven person room of 248 square feet. Monthly inclusive rents for those estates located in the New Territories are correspondingly lower.
110. Shop and workshop rents in estates are determined by the size and location of the premises. There are four grades based on location, and shops enjoying the best trading situations adjoining main roads or hawker markets are charged more than those less advantageously placed. Shop units in the Mark I and II estates range in size from 120 to 310 square feet. The rents for these shops were increased in two stages, the first in November 1968 and the second in April 1969. The rent for a shop of 120 square feet in the urban areas now varies from $45 to $124.50 depending on the grade; the rent includes an element for rates and water charges. As with domestic rooms, Mark III and IV estate shop rents are higher, a Grade A shop of 120 square feet in the urban area being charged $124.50 a month (including rates and water). Workshops are usually in the lowest grade as they are in locations least suitable for retail trade.
111. During 1970-71, the first of the Mark V shops at Sau Mau Ping Estate were let by public tender with a fixed rent and under a three year renewable lease. Since 1969, shops in estates have ceased to be allocated to eligible squatter shopkeepers cleared for redevelop- ment; since then ex-gratia cash compensation is paid instead: only in the relatively few cases where a definite commitment existed since before the compensation policy was introduced in 1969 are shops in estates allocated directly to cleared squatter shopkeepers. Newly constructed estate shops are now let by public tender. This system is, of course, open to those squatter shopkeepers who receive cash compensation.
112. Rents for units in resettlement factories are calculated on a cost basis, as with domestic rooms, but the capital cost includes the full upset price that would be set if the land were put up for sale by public auction, and it is amortized over twenty-one years with compound interest at 5% per annum. Here again rates are included in the rent payable by tenants. In the older factories, rentals for a unit of 198 square feet vary from $75 a month on the ground floor to $45 on the top floor, and in the newest factories from $140 to $65 for a unit of 256 square feet.
34