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The following is issued on behalf of the Housing Authority:
The Housing Authority (HA)'s Subsidized Housing Committee (SHC) has agreed that rents for 2,397 flats in three New Harmony blocks at Ching Ho Estate Phase 3 in Fanling be set at the current district best rent level at $44.8 per square meter internal floor area (IFA).
"Under this rent fixing exercise, 100% of the flats are set at a rent level below $1,800 per month," a spokesman for HA said, adding that public housing rents, inclusive of rates, management and maintenance costs, are heavily subsidized.
Stressing that the rent level is within the prospective tenants' affordability, the spokesman said that low-income tenants who could not afford the rents of new flats would be offered refurbished flats of cheaper rents.
"While tenants' affordability is the major consideration for the HA in setting rents for new estates, other factors such as inflation, rates, management and maintenance costs, wage movement, estate value, location, transportation are also taken into account," he said.
The spokesman explained that prospective tenants' affordability was measured by the two median rent-to-income ratio (MRIR) benchmarks capped at 15% and 18.5% for the minimum space allocation standard of 5.5 sq.m. and 7 sq.m. IFA per person respectively.
"The HA will be conducting a public consultation exercise to formulate a practical, sustainable and flexible rent policy acceptable to the public," he said.
"Until the policy is formulated, the existing mechanism for rent-fixing will be adopted," the spokesman added.
Ends/Thursday, January 5, 2006
Issued at HKT 17:59
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