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Monitoring of Hong Kong Housing Society
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Housing, Mr Dominic Wong, in the motion debate on monitoring the Hong Kong Housing Society in the legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I have listened with great interest to comments made by Honourable Members on the role, policies and operations of the Housing Society, and am grateful for their views and suggestions. I shall respond to the main points raised.
Housing Society's role and objectives
First, let me clarify that the Housing Society is an independent, non-profit- making organisation set up in 1948 and incorporated by ordinance in 1951. Although it has a close working relationship with the Government, it is not a quasi-government body or an executive arm of the Government. The Housing Society is composed of a group of dedicated volunteers who have devoted much of their time and energy freely to serve the community.
The prime objective of the Housing Society is to provide housing for specific low-income groups in Hong Kong. It was the pioneer in this field, in parallel with the Hong Kong Housing Authority which was established by the Government 25 years later. The Government does not directly subsidised the Housing Society but rather grants land at concessionary premia and low interest loans to the Housing Society to help it meet specific housing objectives. Conditions are imposed on the use of land. Despite such assistance, the Housing Society deploys much of its own reserves and, if necessary, raises finance from the market as working capital in order to complete the various projects.
Housing production
In relation to its public housing role, the Society has produced about 32,000 rental flats for low-income households (for which, on average, 40% of market rent is charged), 3,600 flats for sale (which are similar to the Housing Authority's Home Ownership Scheme and the Private Sector Participation Scheme), and 3,200 flats under the Urban Improvement Scheme. Another 8,500 units are under construction. The total cost of producing all these housing units amounts to around $15 billion. To put matters in perspective, only 3.6% (or $537 million) of this cost is assisted by government loans. Up to 31 March 1995, nearly 40% of these loans have already been repaid.