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Monday, June 25, 1973
NEED FOR GREATER AND FASTER SUPPLY OF HOUSING
The answer to reducing rents to reasonable levels lay in a greater
and faster supply of more housing, not in rent controls, the Commissioner for
Rating and Valuation, Mr. R.A. Fry, said today.
Addressing the weekly meeting of the New Territories Rotary Club,
situation where
Mr. Fry described rent controls as "a very negative thing" which did not provide
a real remedy but which was nevertheless necessary in a
landlords were taking "unfair advantage" of the imbalance between demand and supply.
While it had been necessary for the government to intervene again
in the domestic sector, he hoped that with the 10 year housing programie and with the full participation of private enterprise "it will not be necessary
for government intervention to become a permanent feature of our property market.'
In putting forward new proposals for controls, he said, the government
was duty bound to take into regard the position of both landlords and tenants
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although it was never easy to reconcile the different views.
Referring to suggestions for government intervention to reduce some of
the very high rents agreed to over the past year, Mr. Fry said he believed that
this should be left to market forces, as it was extremely difficult to administer
and determine "fair rents."
One of the strongest forces in reducing prices, he said, was "consumer
resistence."
"If tenants refuse to pay some of the very high rents demanded,
landlords would have to lower their sights. I do think that sometimes tenants
are too quick to agree to excessive rents or large increases, " he added.
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