XN000022-1976-04-07 — Page 4

Wednesday, April 7, 1976

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"Even so because of staff shortages in the Housing Department in the initial stages, and the general desirability of letting private developers demonstrate in a practical way the economics of their involvement, it would

be sensible to invite tenders from selected private developers for the design

and construction of one or more of these schemes to laid-down specifications

and standards."

He said the Housing Authority would certainly consider this method

of building flats for sale.

Commenting on a suggestion by the Hon. James Wu of private treaty

land sales to private developers at a fraction of the full value, Mr. Lightbody

said the difficulty was that a public body like the Housing Authority would

have serious problems in choosing a developer to undertake the scheme, in the

absence of competitive bids,

"Nor is there any reason for selling the land to the developer, at

whatever price, if all the flots are to be sold at a price fixed by the Authority

to households chosen by the Authority.

"If any land concession does prove necessary it should be kept to the

Justifiable minimum, not least because any large concession in this direction

would oblige us to think seriously about controlling re-sale," he added.

The Secretary went on to say that the scheme could be made even more

attractive if it were backed up by more liberal mortgage terms than were now

generally available.

The mortgage terms in the housing market had been gradually improved

over the years, but Mr. Lightbody felt that it was a slow process and he would

like to see it speeded up, both as regards the length of the repayment term

and the amount of down payment. "We will continue to search for ways of

bringing this about."1

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