TNAG-1012-FCO40-1262-Address-by-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--at-t-1981 — Page 33

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43.

Thus there will be 12,500 units a year for sale at prices well

within the means of the middle and lower-middle income.groups, insulated against

the vagaries of the land market. Since completions on this scale re

essential to cur needs, if sites offered to the Private Sector

Participation Scheme do not attract adequate tenders they will be taken

over and developed as part of the icme Ownership Scheme.

44.

季

With a rental scheme planned to run at about 30,000 units a

year, the annual completion of public sector units, including those

produced under the Home Ownership and Private Sector Participation

Schemes and the Middle Income Housing Programme, should thus steadily

rise from the current level of at least 35,000 units to over 42,000 by

1985/86.

The Private Sector

45.

The performance of the private sector in the year ended 31st

March, with 21,500 units completed, was rather less than in the previous

year. However, the forecast is for this year's total to exceed 31,000

units. This should raise the figure of completions for the public and

private sector combined to about 71,500 for the current year, compared

with 59,100 units for last year.

Forecast of Future Requirements

46.

Where will construction on the scale planned get us? The

dimensions of our housing shortage are very hard to quantify with

accuracy. A comparison of the number of households recorded in the

census against our stock of self-contained flats in the public and

private sectors produces a shortage of some 260,000 flats,

/This