ENG-1958 — Page 193

160

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

peninsula. At the end of 1958, the urban population on this basis amounted to 2,245,000 persons. 273,435 persons were housed in resettlement accommodation, an increase of some 44,000 persons over the previous year. It was estimated that there were still about 325,000 persons without regular housing of any kind, and that the balance of 1,647,000 were occupying regular housing of some kind.

At the end of 1958, the regular domestic accommodation available in the urban area consisted of 1,168 houses, 9,419 large flats, 14,208 small flats, 88,622 tenement floors and 8,229 low-cost housing units. 50% of this accommodation was of post-war construction; the increase in percentage over the previous year's figure of 44% shows the considerable extent during the year of new building and the demolition of old property of pre-war construction. 10,420 new domestic premises were erected during the year; but 2,207 domestic premises were also demolished, so that the total increase was 8,213 domestic premises. This represents a considerable improvement over the average increase of recent years of about 4,000 premises a year.

A Special Committee on Housing was appointed in 1956 to investigate and report on the housing situation. The Committee rendered its Final Report in 1958 and from the statistics produced it was for the first time possible to gain a clear picture of the condition of the houses and the living conditions of the popula- tion. The major proportion of buildings was constructed of brick walls, with reinforced cement concrete roofs and floors, and concrete stairs. There was nevertheless a fair proportion of old- style property (mainly built before 1903) with wooden floors, wooden stairs, and roofs of tiles on rafters. 95% of present-day building is of reinforced concrete construction. The standards of construction obtaining were generally the minimum allowable, and the facilities provided on individual floors were in many cases poor by any reasonable standards. Over 21,000 premises were found to be pre-1903 premises so lacking in basic hygienic facilities as to constitute a danger to the health of the inhabitants. Over 7,000 premises, mainly in the central districts of Hong Kong Island, were in back-to-back houses of pre-1903 construction with wooden stairs, a type of construction likely to constitute a danger to the inhabitants in the event of fire. The actual living conditions