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LAND AND HOUSING

the standard of government low-cost housing. The estate is to be managed on the same standard as for Housing Authority and low- cost housing estates.

Government-aided housing

The Hong Kong Housing Authority, a statutory body created in 1954 by the Housing Ordinance (Chapter 283), aims to provide, manage and maintain suitable housing and amenities for as many as possible of those people who are living in overcrowded or other- wise unsatisfactory conditions and cannot afford to pay the rent charged by private landlords for comparable accommodation. At the end of the year, the authority had provided accommodation for 218,455 people in 34,894 domestic flats in nine housing estates. There were 323 shops, 29 kindergartens and 138 market stalls. Three estates are on Hong Kong Island, five in Kowloon and one in the New Territories. The largest, the Wah Fu estate, comprising 7,793 flats for 53,950 people, was completed during the year. Another estate containing 6,205 flats for 46,125 people is under construction at Ho Man Tin.

Domestic flats built by the authority are self-contained, and apart from the living space, include a private verandah, kitchen, toilet with a water closet and shower. At present allocations are made at a minimum of 35 square feet of living space for each person. Site layouts are planned in such a way that the buildings occupy 25 to 27 per cent of the site but provide a total floor area equivalent to three to four times the site area, representing a density of about 2,000 people to the gross acre. External and internal finishings are simple, and the cost of the structure represents a high percentage of the cost of the building. Lifts are provided in buildings higher than eight storeys. These estates are also provided with such ameni- ties as shops, market stalls, primary schools, kindergartens, clinics, community rooms, garages and play areas.

The total capital assets of the Housing Authority at December 31, 1971, amounted to $341 million of which $252 million was from government loans and grants and $89 million from internal re- sources. 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 comparable accommodation in the same district, covering only direct annual expenditure including a charge for amortisation of the capital cost and a small budgeted surplus to finance future schemes. To accelerate its building programme to house more people on the