1. Since the Housing Authority announced that commercial tenants could apply for rent re-assessment, how many such applications have been received by the Housing Department as at 22 July 1998? Please provide a breakdown of the results of all completed cases of re-assessment by percentage of rent increase or reduction in groupings of 0-10%, 10-20%, ..., etc.

1. Since the announcement by the Housing Authority of the rent re-assessment scheme until 15 July 1998, the Housing Authority has received 1,241 applications. More updated figure will be provided to the LegCo Panel on Housing at its meeting of 23 July 1998.
   
   
2. The Housing Department has completed the first batch of 52 applications for rent re-assessment, all of which have their rents reduced. A summary of the rent re-assessment is as follows:
   
   

Rent reduction	Shops	Market Stalls	Cooked food stalls	Total
0%-9.9%	0	0	0	0
10%-19.9%	4	1	2	7
20%-29.9%	11	3	1	15
30%-39.9%	6	6	1	13
40%-49.9%	3	6	0	9
50%-59.9%	2	4	0	6
60%-69.9%	1	1	0	2
	27	21	4	52

2. Is there any appeal channel for commercial tenants who are dissatisfied with the results of rent re-assessment?

There is no contractual mechanism for appeal under the tenancy agreements between the Housing Authority and commercial tenants if tenants are dissatisfied with the results of rent re-assessment. However, the Housing Department is prepared to review the re-assessed rent if tenants can provide additional supporting information. As landlord, the Housing Authority retains the final decision on rent to be charged.

3. How many commercial tenants have renewed their tenancies since February 1998 (when the Housing Authority decided to freeze rent of commercial premises for one year)? How many of these tenants have to pay a higher level of rent upon renewal of tenancy? What are the percentages of rent increase? Please provide a breakdown in groupings of 0-5%, 5-10%, 11-15%, 16-20%, 21-25%, 25-30%, 30-35%, 36-40% and above 40%.

Since the announcement of the decision of the Housing Authority on 22 January 1998 to freeze rent of commercial premises for one year until 30 June 1998, 1,234 commercial tenants have renewed their tenancies. Among these, 114 tenancies were renewed with rent reduction, 114 tenancies were renewed with no change in rent, and 1006 tenancies were renewed with rent increase. The rents for those tenancies with rent increase are freezed for one year. A summary of renewed tenancies is provided at the next page.

	Percentages	No. of Cases (as at 30 June 1998)	Total
Tenancy renewal with rent reduction	Over 40%	11	114
	35.1% - 40%	4
	30.1% - 35%	7
	25.1% - 30%	32
	20.1% - 25%	10
	15.1% - 20%	7
	10.1% - 15%	11
	5.1% - 10%	19
	0.1% - 5%	13
Tenancy renewal with no rent changes	0%	114	114
Tenancy renewal with rent increase	0.1% - 5%	74
	5.1% - 10%	177
	10.1% - 15%	253
	15.1% - 20%	266
	20.1% - 25%	132
	25.1% - 30%	54
	30.1% - 35%	18
	35.1% - 40%	7
	Over 40%	25	1006
			1234

4. Is there any appeal channel for commercial tenants who are dissatisfied with the levels of rent to be charged upon renewal of tenancy?

Same as reply to question 2.

5. Please provide information on the vacancy rates of commercial premises under the Housing Authority since January 1997.

From January 1997 to June 1998, the quarterly vacancy rate of the Housing Authority commercial premises are as follows:




Housing Department
July 1998