WHEN Mr Cheung leaves his 400-square-foot Choi Hung public housing estate flat in the morning for the MTR trip to his office, he often sees his neighbour getting into a BMW.
Mr Cheung describes his neighbour as ''a rich tenant'', but the BMW driver is just one of many seemingly prosperous inhabitants of what is regarded as a ''well-off'' estate, where most of the flats are air-conditioned and have washing machines and video recorders.
The three-storey car park underneath the block is dotted with Mercedes-Benz, BMWs, Toyotas and Mazdas, and during Chinese festivals limousines stop on the road outside to drop off families returning home for a reunion.
At a North Point public housing estate, tenant Mr Ng said: ''Those who've lived here for 10 years or more are much better off now. It's reasonable for them to pay more.'' Mr Ng, 25, who earns $10,000 a month, looked at a Mercedes in the car park and added: ''Most people are able to pay, but they don't want to lose the benefits they are enjoying.'' Such public housing tenants are the envy of thousands in Hongkong who have no option but to pay exorbitant rents on private flats.
However, Mr Cheung's ''rich tenants'' are the very people who are fighting the Housing Authority's controversial plans to introduce a double rent policy, officially called the Housing Subsidy Policy.
Under the recently revised policy, tenants who have lived in public flats for more than 10 years are required to pay double the normal rent if their monthly income is more than treble the limit allowed for public housing. Tenants with income amounting totwice the subsidy limit pay 50 per cent more.