140
LAND AND HOUSING
The number of instruments registered during the year dropped by about 10 per cent from last year's record total of 48,654 to 43,866. The figure included 526 assignments of whole buildings or sites (as against 683 in 1966), 19,002 assignments of flats and other units in multi-storey buildings (against 19,505), 3,935 agreements for sale of such flats and units (against 7,912), and 8,363 mortgages (against 7,840). As a consequence of the decline in new building projects, figures remained low in the registrations of building mort- gages (55 against 107 in 1966), and in orders excluding premises from the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, which usually have to be obtained prior to redevelopment of the sites of old buildings (16 against 22). Orders requiring redevelopment of the sites of demolished buildings totalled 174 (against 225). The number of searches, which, as a search must be made prior to every land transaction, provides a good index to the state of the property market, dropped by 9.5 per cent from 52,040 to 47,092. Compared with 1966 the grand total of considerations recorded in all in- struments registered declined by $488,000,000, or 18 per cent, to $2,190,000,000.
The volume of work in several other sections of the Land Office was influenced by the prevailing market conditions. During the year, 118 conditions of sale, grant, exchange, etc were registered as compared with 136 in 1966. Consents granted to forward sales of flats, in those cases where the conditions under which the land is held give the necessary power of control, also fell by 44 to 57. On the other hand the number of modifications and deeds of variation of lease conditions usually a prelude to multi-storey development-rose by two to 34. The reduced activity in some directions enabled further good progress to be made in the issue of Crown leases, and 448 were issued as compared with 265 in 1966.
At the end of the year the Land Office card index of property owners contained the names of 142,305 people (an increase of 15,789 over the previous year), some owning several properties, but most being merely owners or part owners of small individual flats.