CO129-468 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1921 [6-8] — Page 447

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development in 1914, and that the owners of houses in that

district were prepared to let their property at low rentals

in order to attract tenants to the locality, hoping to recover

their losses later when the extension of the town, or the in-

creased popularity of the district, should have attracted a

larger population. In a case like this it would seem hardly

fair to allow only the same percentage of increase as would be

allowed in an old established district. The difficulty does

not end here, because it is possible that some recent houses

in the same locality may have been let from the beginning at

a rental perfectly fair to the owners, and it would be unreason-

able to allow such owners the same rate of increase as would

be allowed to owners who had at the beginning let their houses

at a sacrifice.

9.

The objections to a Rents Board, whether intended as a

part of the percentage scheme or not, were that it would in-

volve a great expenditure of public and private time, that it

would take a long time to cover the ground, that great uncer-

tainty would exist until it had done so, and that there was

some danger that its decision would not be uniform throughout.

only The Ordinance provides for rent revision in

of

two cases.

One is the case intermediate leases, dealt with in section

5 of the Ordinance. The other is the case where the rent on

the 31st December, 1920, was no higher than it was on the 1st

January, 1918, or was

1st January, 1918.

a rent which was fixed before the

This latter class of cases is dealt

to

with in section 13 of the Ordinance. An example of a case

which will no doubt be dealt with under section 13 is that of

a block of European flats in Kowloon, the rents of which re-

mained stationary from 19C9/March, 1921, although during that

period that owner was getting a net return of only 6%.

10.