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Wednesday, May 10, 1972
Presumably this was because all had recognised that whatever rent
might be charged by the Government upon renewal, it would be much less than
the rent that would be charged by a private landlord for the same or similar
premises, he said.
Owners had also been given the choice of renewing early and paying
in a lump sum, or paying over the term of the lease or renewing on the basis
of the existing development and paying a rent of about 30 per cent of actual
income from the property, he added.
Although there were a considerable number of leases due for renewal
in 1973, they represented only a fraction of the total number of properties
in the Colony, the Financial Secretary said.
Leases
He pointed out that among the leases due for renewal in 1973 there
were none on Hong Kong Island, none in Kowloon, a group of 2,900 lots
comprising some 5,000 properties in New Kowloon, and about 90 lots in the
whole of the New Territories.
For that reason alone the increased rents landowners had to pay
on renewal could not be passed on to tenants to a greater extent than was
permitted by market forces, for they could not exercise a great deal of
influence on the general level of rents, he said.
Excluding about 290,000 old schedule lots in the Now Territories
which were in no way affected, the leases subject to renewal in 1973 represented
a mere seven and a half per cont of all other lots in the Colony.
The