B. O. Work.
Q 26
bable that this reconstruction was to a large extent carried out to evade the provisions of the Rents Ordinance which allows the readjustment of rents in cases of reconstruction.
Apart from this, there has been a great increase in building activity as will be seen from the figures given below.
1922 1923 Increase Decrease European houses, 219 506 287 Chinese houses, 1,258 3,395 2,137 Buildings and Structures other than the above, 182 245 63 Alterations and additions to existing buildings, 1,736 2,515 809 Verandahs, 863 1,771 908 Balconies, 325 748 423 Sunshades, 5 88 83 Areas, 1 1 Wells (not separated in former reports), ... 55 55 Piers, 14 24 10 Total, 4,603 9,377 4,774This shows a net increase of 4,774 or 104 per cent. It will be observed that the increase is chiefly accounted for by the large number of plans submitted for new Chinese houses, with their verandahs and balconies usually over Crown land, for which plans have to be dealt with separately.
The number of plans deposited during the year was 3,459 as compared with 1,935 for 1922, an increase of 1,524 or 79 per cent.
The number of plans approved during the year was 3,108 as compared with 2,027 in 1922, an increase of 1,081, or 53 per cent.
25. Certificates.-The following certificates for new buildings were issued:
254, under Section 204 of Ordinance 1 of 1903, for 985 domestic buildings, of which 125 were European and 860 Chinese dwellings.
45 for 51 non-domestic buildings.
These figures show an increase of 259 in the case of "Domestic" and a decrease of 21 in the number of “Non-domestic " buildings.