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LAND AND HOUSING

In 1962 the Authority undertook, at the Government's request, to manage all the properties built under the Government low-cost housing programme. These estates consist of multi-storey blocks of flats each containing a living-room, private balcony, cooking place with a water point and communal toilet facilities. Manage- ment of these properties is carried out on a non-profit basis, the costs being paid by Government and the rents credited to Govern- ment funds. Maintenance and management on the Authority's estates and the Government low-cost housing estates is of a high standard and includes rent collection and supervision by trained housing managers, maintenance officers and assistants. The staff of the Authority are all Government servants working in the housing division of the Urban Services Department under the direction of the Commissioner for Housing. In July an arrange- ment was introduced whereby the Authority reimburses to Govern- ment all staff salaries, plus a percentage calculated to meet indirect staff costs, and is thereafter directly responsible for all administra- tive expenses.

RESETTLEMENT

Hong Kong's resettlement estates have attracted world-wide attention. Few visitors leave the Colony unimpressed by the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are being provided with housing by a low-cost building programme which, for speed and imagination, has few if any parallels. By the end of 1963 the Government of Hong Kong had become, through this programme, the direct landlord of 604,754 people. This figure represents about 17 per cent of the population and there are plans to resettle a further 400,000 people by the end of 1967. New blocks, each capable of accommodating over 2,300 people, are being built at the rate of one every 10 days.

The rapid increase in population since the war has been quite startling and the supply of conventional housing could not keep pace with the phenomenal growth in population. The newcomers therefore had to find homes by unconventional means which they did by building shelters or huts of any materials that could be had cheaply, on any piece of vacant land. These squatter huts rapidly spread over the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon. In many places there were colonies of squatters, some of 38,000