ENG-1959 — Page 19

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

is $74.6 million. But impressive as this record is, private enterprise alone could never meet the demand except for housing of the better sort and this, in general terms, it can be said to have done.

The main problem of housing those sections of the population who were unable to afford the kind of housing that private enter- prise could supply had therefore to be tackled directly or indirectly by Government. As already explained, Government first entered this field on a massive scale after Christmas 1953: and, by the end of 1956, 40 multi-storey resettlement blocks had been built, spread over 4 estates and housing some 103,000 people in all. By the end of 1959, 103 domestic multi-storey resettlement blocks had been built in 9 estates and 229,956 people were housed in them. In addition,- 2 further estates were under construction and addi- tional blocks were being built in all but 2 of the existing estates. During the year, plans were laid down for an expansion which is expected to provide resettlement housing for 80,000 persons in 1960 and 100,000 persons a year in succeeding years.

Apart from those who have been provided with homes in the multi-storey estates, there are 80,386 persons living in -14,611 cottages in the cottage areas; where terrain is often unsuitable to multi-storey development. Voluntary agencies built many of these cottages and then handed them over to Government. There are in fact less of these cottages than in 1956: the reason is that some of the original cottages have been cleared to make room for multi- storey resettlement, having achieved their original purpose of providing emergency accommodation at a time when speed of construction was the overriding consideration.

In round figures, the Hong Kong Government's total estimated capital expenditure on multi-storey estates and cottage areas to the end of the financial year 1959-60 will be $125.6 million and estimated total annual recurrent expenditure will be $29.5 million. Against these expenditures, the Colony revenue will have received a total of some $25.9 million in rent payments by the end of the current financial year: and it is a measure of the popularity of resettlement housing that, up to the present, a total of only $13,763 in unpaid rents has had to be written off. Rents are calculated to cover all annually recurrent costs and to provide for the recovery of the original capital cost, including the value of the land at a flat rate of $10 a square foot and interest at 34%, in forty years