ENG-1970 — Page 168

LAND AND HOUSING

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Domestic flats built by the authority are self-contained. Each flat contains a private verandah, a kitchen and a toilet with a water closet and a shower, and living space of 35 square feet for each person. Housing estates provide such amenities as shopping centres, market stalls, primary schools, kindergartens, clinics, community rooms, garages and play areas, open and covered.

By the time all the estates under construction and planning are completed, the authority will be able to house 264,590 people in 41,209 flats. In addition, 353 shops and 34 kindergartens will have been established. The total capital assets of the authority as at the end of the year amounted to $328 million of which $250 million was from government loans and $78 million from internal resources. The Government provides land at one-third of the estimated market value.

The policy of the authority has always been to fix rents for new estates as low as possible, well below the market value for compa- rable accommodation, covering only the direct annual expenditure of each estate including a charge for amortisation of the capital cost and a small budgeted surplus to finance future schemes. In order to accelerate its programme of building new estates to house many more people in housing need, the authority has adopted a schedule of rent adjustments which entails a rent increase of about 10 per cent at intervals of not less than two years. At the end of the year, rents ranging from 25 cents to 39 cents per square foot were charged for domestic accommodation, depending on the location and capital cost of the estate.

The Housing Authority maintains a combined waiting list from which to find tenants to fill vacancies in both Housing Authority and government low-cost housing estates, present or future. At the end of the year, this list contained 163,767 applications, of which 24,390 had been passed after investigation for allocation of flats. In order to be eligible for registration on that list, the applicant must have a family of at least four persons with a family income from $400 to $1,250 per month for Housing Authority flats, and not exceeding $500 per month for government low-cost housing flats. Government low-cost housing estates at Kwai Chung also cater for families of at least three persons, two of whom must be a married couple, with a family income not exceeding $600 per