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Residents in 5600 industrial buildings are in an embarrassing situation

2021-03-23T01:10:31.487Z


Since the end of 2019, the government announced the establishment of a subdivided rent control research group. The group was established in April 2020. The original term was 18 months to October this year. However, it is reported that the government suddenly "accelerated" at the beginning of the year.


District 18 News

Author: Contribution

2021-03-23 ​​09:00

Last update date: 2021-03-23 ​​09:00

Since the end of 2019, the government announced the establishment of a subdivided rent control research group. The group was established in April 2020. The original term was 18 months to October this year. However, it is reported that the government suddenly "accelerated" at the beginning of the year. In the middle of this year, rent control will be "launched" before this session of the Legislative Council, and the reasons behind it will be judged by yourself. However, speeding up the establishment of rent control should be beneficial to a group of low-level residential tenants, but if some important but potentially controversial issues are abandoned in order to speed up The focus of the regulation is turning the cart before the horse, and ultimately the grassroots will suffer.

Whether or not industrial buildings should be included in the regulation is one of them.

Written by: Wu Kunlian, member of the Kwai Chung Sub-House Residents Alliance

Since the establishment of the Long-Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee in 2012, the government has begun to recognize sub-divided housing and other unsuitable housing problems. In 2013, it released figures such as "subdivided housing units" and "unsuitable housing", even though the figures have been estimated to be serious. Underestimated, but finally there are counts to follow.

However, the situation of sub-districts in industrial buildings is even more embarrassing.

Compared with the sub-districts of private buildings, the industrial buildings themselves are clearly non-residential, and the government's law enforcement is theoretically understandable.

However, in recent years, the rent of subdivided housing has become more and more expensive, and the relatively affordable substandard housing of industrial buildings per square foot has absorbed a lot of grassroots.

The demand for subdivided housing in industrial buildings has soared, and the surge in rent and supply is predictable.

1 industrial building unit divided into 90 rooms

According to the "Survey on the Current Situation of Industrial Buildings in Kwai Tsing District" released by the Lady MacLehose Centre of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui in early February, the median saleable area of ​​industrial buildings is 200 square feet, which is higher than the "Hong Kong 2016 Mid-year Demographic Statistics-Thematic Report: People Living in Subdivided Flats" shows 107.6 square feet of the median floor area of ​​general subdivided flats.

The median monthly rent for industrial tenants is $4,250, which is slightly lower than the median monthly rent for households in general subdivided housing, which is $4,500.

Therefore, based on the median calculation, the average rent per square foot of subdivided housing units is $41.8, which is much higher than the monthly rent per square foot of industrial tenants of $21.25, reflecting that there is indeed a significant difference in rent per square foot between subdivided housing in industrial buildings and general subdivided housing. It has also increased a lot more years ago; the supply of subdivided housing in industrial buildings has increased by increasing segmentation. The survey results show that the average number of subdivided units in the industrial building households surveyed is 13.2; the median number of subdivided units is 8.5. The highest number of partitions is 1 industrial unit divided into 90 room units, which is much higher than the number of partitioned units of general private housing units of 3.5. It can be seen that under the rising rent of general subdivided housing, many owners have divided industrial building units into multiple partitions. Room units for rent.

What kind of people live in sub-districts in industrial buildings?

The survey pointed out that the residents of industrial buildings need to spend nearly 50% of their income on rent, which is "the grassroots among the grassroots", while the situation of sub-divided housing in industrial buildings in Kwai Tsing District is only a microcosm of society.

What is the situation of sub-areas in all industrial buildings in Hong Kong?

The 2020 Annual Progress Report of the Long Term Housing Strategy stated that there are 5,600 households living in non-residential buildings.

The government claims that industrial buildings are "inappropriate"

Obviously the above-mentioned government projections do not reflect the actual situation at all, and they have little grasp of the current situation of sub-divided housing in industrial buildings. The government also recognizes this point. Therefore, on the one hand, the government contacts the residents of industrial buildings through the rent management research team, and through the commissioned research unit "policy" "21" collects the situation of industrial buildings; on the other hand, it also strengthens the collection of sub-divided housing data of industrial buildings through the Census Bureau 2021.

It seems that the government is very concerned about the "basic level among the grassroots" in the sub-districts of industrial buildings. It should be a matter of course to include the basic-level residents of industrial buildings into the protection targets of rent management. However, the reality is that the government has been sending out messages in different places that industrial buildings are "not "Legal" is included as "controversial" and "inappropriate" as the target of rent control, which makes many basic-level industrial building residents very worried that they will be excluded from the sub-house rent control.

It should be noted that once the decision is finalized, the rent control will not be able to review it again (the last review was in 2004, when the rent control was withdrawn).

This is by no means the first time that the government has cared about but dealt with the embarrassment of sub-district housing in industrial buildings.

The Community Care Fund "One-time Living Allowance for Non-Public Housing and Non-CSSA Low-income Households" has been reported in 2013 to allow low-income people living in industrial buildings to apply for subsidies with their rent slips; but on the other hand, it is a comprehensive grassroots safety net. The application for assistance did not recognize the address of the industrial building and refused to grant the allowance.

This way of handling contradictions is really confusing.

The subdivided rent management research team will submit a report to the government at the end of the month. At present, there are divergent opinions, and it is still unknown whether subdivided industrial buildings are protected.

It is hoped that the government and the research team will take into account the foreseeable future growth in the population of basic-level households in industrial buildings, and establish a real protection of the basic-level rental control.

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01Community

Subdivided Housing Policy

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-03-23

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