The Hong Kong Institute of Real Estate Administration (Hirea) has proposed that the Government restructure the existing housing-production mechanism for better allocation of land resources. Hirea said the existing structure involved overlapping functions between the Housing Bureau, Housing Authority and Housing Society in governing policy on public housing. To streamline the existing structure, Hirea suggested the creation of a Housing Knowledge Management Board, a government body designed to regulate, co-ordinate and advise on public and private housing policies. Its functions would include the co-ordination of the various organisations in policy-making regarding housing, building and land, and in researching all factors affecting private and public housing. The responsibility for public housing policy-making should rest with the Housing Bureau, and be endorsed by the proposed new board, it said. Hirea proposed that the board consist of a group of advisory committees composed of members of the public, professional bodies and representatives from the industry. It said problems with the existing mechanism included the self-financed Housing Authority having to produce Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) housing in excess of demand to cover the cost of more rental housing. Oversupply of public housing had battered the prices of both public and private housing, it said. It said the Housing Authority also competed with private developers, both in quality and price, increasing imbalance and misplacement in the allocation of resources in order to dispose of the accumulated stock. Other problems included the use of prime sites for development of subsidised housing for low-income groups.