ENG-1978 — Page 140

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Allocations

HOUSING AND LAND

The Housing Authority possesses a stock of 380,700 domestic flats, of widely varying sizes, amenities and rent levels. A large number of casual vacancies at existing estates became available for allocation during the year, either through tenants moving out (4,321 flats) or their moving to new larger accommodation (2,541 flats). It was there- fore possible to offer several alternatives to new tenants, as well as offering additional units to existing tenants to relieve overcrowding.

During the year 15,941 flats were allocated to 79,229 eligible people in the following categories: victims of fire and natural disasters; compassionate cases recommended by the Social Welfare Department or the Medical and Health Department; tenants of properties acquired for urban renewal; tenants of early housing estates under redevelopment; residents of temporary housing areas; relief of overcrowding in public housing estates; waiting-list applicants; junior civil servants and pensioners; and quarters for caretakers and shop tenants. A total of 5,609 flats were allocated to families rendered homeless by development clearances, while 3,572 were allocated to the waiting list.

Any family of three people or a married couple who are residents of Hong Kong may register on the waiting list for public housing. The waiting list is long; since 1967, 387,535 families have applied, of whom 61,525 have been rehoused with another 184,125 found to be ineligible for public housing. Applications are considered in dated order but accommodation is only offered to those found, on investigation, to be living in poor housing conditions, whose family income is within a scale related to family size. This scale was revised at the end of 1977 and now ranges from $2,000 a month for a family of three to a maximum of $2,850 for a family of 10 or more.

Management

Management improvements, particularly in the older estates, continued to be made during the year. The door-to-door system of rent collection, which has been extended to all estates, ensures not only an enviable rent collection record (less than one per cent monthly arrears) but also is an important means of keeping in touch with public housing tenants who form nearly half the community.

Overcrowding in the older estates remains a major problem and some 51,600 families are still living in an area providing less than 2.2 square metres a person. However, with an increasing number of new estates being completed, all such families are now able to apply for transfer to new flats. The flats they vacate, usually being smaller and having a lower rent, are made available to smaller families. Other families wishing to move into a different flat can register with the Mutual Exchange Bureau or, if having substantial reasons other than overcrowding for moving, can request a transfer to a flat of the same size.

The authority is also quite an important commercial landlord, with 12,000 shops, banks and restaurant tenancies of various sizes. Most new commercial lettings are made by lump sum premium tendering; these continue to rise, in spite of the fact that new rents are set very close to market levels. Banks and some larger tenancies have been let following rental tendering, and the authority recently started to use this method, as an experiment, for smaller commercial lettings. New shop lettings are normally on three-year agreements, with provisions for rent review on renewal, while