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Chief Secretary visits Buildings Department 2.
Sale-freeze flats set to be rented
1. Chief Secretary visits Buildings Department
The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, today (September 20)
took a first hand look at the achievements of the Buildings Department's efforts
in clearing unauthorised building works and improving building safety. Mr Tsang
first went to Chung Wui Street in Tai Kok Tsui where he was briefed by the Director
of Buildings, Mr Leung Chin-man, on the progress made by the eight buildings on
both sides of the street in building maintenance and removal of unauthorised building
works. The eight "Chung's" buildings are over 35 years of age. Over the past three
years, six buildings were targeted for large-scale clearance operations to remove
unauthorised building works from the external walls of buildings co-ordinated
by the department. A total of 1,200 removal orders have been served with 75 per
cent of these orders being compiled with. The two remaining buildings joined the
department's building maintenance programme. Ching Hing Building joined the Co-ordinated
Maintenance Building Scheme which was a pilot scheme launched last year to assist
building owners and owners' corporations in pursuing a comprehensive building
maintenance and management programme. Owners of the last building, Chung Yew Building,
voluntarily initiated building maintenance works in November 1997 with all repair
works completed in 1999. Before departing for the department's headquarter offices
at Pioneer Centre, 750 Nathan Road, Mong Kok, Kowloon, the Chief Secretary went
to the rooftop of Chung Yuen Building to take a bird's eye view of the buildings
at Chung Wui Street. On arrival at Pioneer Centre, the Chief Secretary went to
the Building Information Centre on the 13th floor. He first listened to a briefing
on auditing of piling works and later viewed a model of a comprehensive development
at Area 86 in Tseung Kwan O. The 35-hectare development is the largest single
environmentally friendly feature development in Hong Kong. Features such as balconies,
sky gardens, wider corridors, utility platforms, mail rooms, elevated landscape
decks, internal electric powered shuttle service and seawater cooling for major
air-conditioning system are proposed. The Chief Secretary then saw a demonstration
of the Building Records Management System which reduced timing for retrieval of
building plans from 10 working days to a matter of seconds. The system is a pilot
project to archive and retrieve electronically more than 700,000 building records
in Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui. However, plans are in the pipeline to extend
the Building Records Management System to cover more than 20 million building
records of all private buildings in the territory. Before concluding his visit,
Mr Tsang had a short meeting with the Senior Directorate and met staff representatives
at a tea reception. Photo 1: The Director of Buildings, Mr Leung Chin-man, explaining
to the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, progress made in clearing
unauthorised building works from the external walls of private buildings at Chung
Wui Street in Tai Kok Tsui. End/Thursday, September 20, 2001. [Source:
Hong Kong Government, 20 September 2001] 2.
Sale-freeze flats set to be rented
A total of 8,000 Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flats that cannot be sold because
of a sales freeze imposed by the Government are set to be rented out as public
housing. The Government announced earlier this month that it was suspending the
sale of HOS flats for 10 months. A maximum of 9,000 flats are to be sold each
year until 2005-06 after the resumption of sales in July. The Housing Authority
will have $14 billion in income deferred following the suspension, during which
it was estimated 12,000 flats would have been sold. The authority said leaving
these flats empty would be a "waste of government resources and would attract
public criticism", according to a paper to be discussed in a Housing Authority
meeting on Monday. To eliminate unsold units, officials have proposed transferring
8,000 to be completed in 2002/03 to the public for renting. Authority member Wong
Kwan said the proposal would put pressure on the authority's tight finances, yet
this was the only alternative. But he added that the switch from sales to rentals
would mean a further subsidy. The authority's current subsidy for a standard public
housing flat is $325 per family each month, but he estimated that cost would rise
for these higher quality rentals to $1,500. "I really don't know when the Housing
Authority can make its ends meet under these policies," Mr Wong said. He said
tenants may also have difficulty paying the rent for these units as HOS flats
were larger with higher rents. Other measures proposed to reduce the number of
units include selling some HOS flats to tenants soon to be affected by redevelopment
projects and to the Urban Renewal Authority. But the measures do not include selling
the flats to private developers, publicly proposed by Chief Secretary for Administration
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen. The Housing Authority said there would be no surplus of
HOS flats by the end of 2006 after the measures were in place. About 43,500 flats
are now being built and it is estimated 17,854 may be left vacant next year. Meanwhile,
the authority has proposed increasing the housing loan quota from 4,500 to 16,500
a year to help buyers. An extra 6,000 quota would be offered next month, while
another 6,000 would be offered in February. [Source:
SCMP, 21 September 2001] |  |
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