Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1955-1956 — Page 62

II. ANNUAL OUTGOINGS, INCLUDING CAPITAL REPAYMENT,

IN RESPECT OF ONE BLOCK.

Amortisation, that is the annual sum to be repaid in order to write off in forty years a loan of $1,025,600 bearing interest at 31% compound

Crown rent at normal rate of $800 an acre per annum

Maintenance of building @ 1% per annum on cost of

construction

Estimated administrative and miscellaneous recurrent

expenditure

H.K. $

48,026

418

3,900

12,895

$ 65,239

III. RENT CALCULATION.

432 X 12 65,239

The above figures indicated that rents accruing from one block of 432 rentable rooms should total $65,239 per annum. The monthly rent for one room should accordingly be $

=$12.50. $1 a month was added for water and 50 cents for bad debts, voids, etc., and the rent was fixed at $14. In fixing the rent at this figure the Government instructed that the position should be re-examined from time to time in order to ensure that the calculation remained valid.

135. It has not yet been possible to produce figures of the actual capital and recurrent costs and the actual revenue from rents for a whole multi-storey estate since all three estates are still in process of development. It seems likly however that the recurrent costs may prove higher than was anticipated but that the increase in these costs will be offset by the increased revenue from ground floor rooms used as shops and workshops for which a rent of $50 a month is charged.

CHAPTER XII

THE REMAINING PROBLEM

136. In the autumn of 1955 a survey was made of all the remaining squatter areas, including those which consist only of two or three huts, as a result of which it became possible for the first time to estimate with a fair degree of accuracy the number of persons still living in unlawful structures of various types.

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