LAND AND HOUSING
LAND OFFICE
115
The Land Office, a branch of the Registrar General's Department, is responsible for the registration of all instruments affecting land; the settling and registration of conditions of sale, grant and exchange of Crown land; the issue, renewal, variation and termination of Crown leases; the granting of mining leases; and advice to the Government generally on matters relating to land.
The system of registration, introduced in 1844, is broadly similar to that in the Yorkshire Deeds Registries in England. The Land Registration Ordinance provides that all deeds and instruments registered under it shall have priority according to their respective dates of registration, and that deeds and instruments not registered (other than bona fide leases at rack rent for any term not exceeding three years) shall be absolutely null and void as against any sub- sequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee for valuable considera- tion. Registration is therefore essential to the protection of title, but does not guarantee it.
The number of instruments registered during the year rose by 5.2 per cent from last year's total of 70,278 to 73,946. The figure included 1,727 assignments of whole buildings or sites (against 1,546 in 1970), 22,695 assignments of flats and other units in multi- storey buildings (against 24,866), 13,007 agreements for sale of such flats and units (against 10,252), and 17,440 mortgages (against 16,343). As a result of the continuing high rate of new building projects, the number of building mortgages registered during the year remained at 145, the same as in 1970, and the number of orders excluding premises from the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, which usually have to be obtained prior to redevelopment of the sites of old buildings, increased by 143 to 224. Orders requiring redevelopment of the sites of demolished buildings totalled 108 (against 72). The number of searches, which provides a good index to the state of the property market, rose by 8.8 per cent from 99,891 to 108,632. Compared with 1970 the total of considerations recorded in all instruments registered rose by $1,128 million, or 22.2 per cent, to $6,206 million.
The volume of work in several other sections of the Land Office was influenced by the prevailing market conditions. During the year, 292 conditions of sale, grant, exchange, etc were registered compared with 201 in 1970. Consents granted to forward sales of flats in those cases where the conditions under which the land is
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