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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Development, Mr Paul Chan, in the Legislative Council today (April 13):
Question:
Under the Government's Small House Policy, a male indigenous villager at least 18 years old who is descended through the male line from a resident in 1898 of a recognised village in the New Territories (indigenous villager) may apply once during his lifetime to the authorities for permission to erect for himself a small house on a suitable site within his own village. Upon being given approval by the authorities to construct a small house, an indigenous villager must, before commencement of the works, apply for the issue of a Certificate of Exemption pursuant to the Buildings Ordinance (Application to the New Territories) Ordinance (Cap. 121) in respect of building, site formation and drainage works. After the relevant works have been completed, a District Lands Officer will issue a Certificate of Compliance upon receipt of the construction completion report and at the same time upon his satisfaction that all other obligations imposed on the applicant have been fully complied with. Some members of the public have recently relayed to me that in recent years, quite a number of indigenous villagers have constructed many small houses in a number of villages, which has seriously affected their living environment. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council, in each of the past 10 years:
(1) of (i) the number of applications received by the Lands Department (LandsD) for the construction of small houses, (ii) the number of Certificates of Exemption issued by LandsD for the construction of small houses, and (iii) the number of Certificates of Compliance issued by LandsD for small house construction works; regarding each of the items (i) to (iii), the District Council district and village in which the largest number of cases were found; and
(2) of (i) the number of cases in which removal of restriction on alienation for small houses was approved by the authorities following the owners' payment of land premium for the small houses concerned, (ii) the total amount of such land premium collected by the authorities in respect of small houses, and (iii) the respective largest and smallest amounts of land premium collected by the authorities in a single case?
Reply:
President,
My reply to various parts of the question is as follows:
(1) The number of small house applications received and Certificates of Compliance (CCs) issued by the Lands Department (LandsD) in the past 10 years (2006-2015) is set out below:
Number of small house
Year applications received Number of CCs issued
---- --------------------- --------------------
2006 1 767 797
2007 1 466 1 085
2008 1 810 920
2009 1 769 847
2010 1 959 973
2011 2 374 812
2012 2 690 1 089
2013 2 566 1 151
2014 2 522 1 066
2015 2 547 904
Note: In view of the time required for processing small house applications and building small houses, the applications received in a particular year do not necessarily imply that the relevant CCs were issued in the same year.
LandsD does not keep a separate breakdown of the number of Certificates of Exemption in respect of building works issued solely for small houses.
According to LandsD's records, in the past 10 years (2006-2015), the Yuen Long District Lands Office received the largest number of small house applications at around 8 900 and issued the largest number of CCs at around 3 900.
LandsD has no separate breakdown, by District Council district or by village, of the number of small house applications received and CCs issued.
(2) The number of approved cases for removal of restriction on alienation and the amount of premium collected for removal of restriction on alienation by LandsD in the past 10 years (2006-2015) are set out below:
Number of approved Amount of premium
cases for removal collected for removal of
of restriction restriction on
Year on alienation alienation ($ million)
---- -------------------- ----------------------
2006 444 383
2007 407 352
2008 494 457
2009 474 344
2010 454 394
2011 493 519
2012 404 513
2013 485 597
2014 577 829
2015 462 749
The highest and lowest amount of premium collected for removal of restriction on alienation (for a single case) in the past 10years (2006-2015) were about $14.6 million and $118,000 respectively.
Ends/Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Issued at HKT 15:48
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