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LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
Land Office The Land Registration Ordinance provides for the registration in the Land Office, a Division of the Registrar General's Department, of all instruments affecting land. Registra- tion is effected by means of a memorial containing the essential particulars of the instrument which are then placed on a register card relating to the particular piece of land. Register cards are kept also in respect of individual premises such as residential flats, shops and commercial and industrial premises. The register cards provide a complete picture of the title to each property from the grant of the government lease and are available for search by the public in photostat form on payment of a small fee. The memorials and a complete copy of each registered instrument are kept and are available for search in microfilm form by the public, again on payment of a fee.
The Land Registration Ordinance also provides that all instruments registered under it shall have priority according to their respective dates of registration. This provision applies unless they are registered within one month of execution, in which case priority relates back to the date of the instrument. In the case of charging orders made by the court and pending court actions, priority runs from the day following the date of actual registration. The ordinance further provides that unregistered instruments, other than bona fide leases at a rack rent for a term not exceeding three years, shall be null and void as against any subsequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration. Registration is therefore essential to the protection of title, but does not guarantee it.
The records of transactions affecting land on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon, New Kowloon and some of the urban areas of the New Territories are kept at the Land Office, Victoria, while those relating to transactions affecting land in the remainder of the New Territories are kept in the appropriate District Land Offices in the New Territories. During the year, 336 347 instruments were registered at the Land Office, compared with 292 796 in 1986. Detailed statistics are at Appendix 34. At the end of the year, the card index of property owners contained the names of 600 624 owners, an increase of 64 607 over the previous year.
Work on the computerisation of the information on the Land Office register cards, with a view to introducing a computerised land registration system, continued during the year, and conversion into computerised data began in November, 1986. This exercise is expected to be completed by late 1989.
The Land Office also provides a conveyancing and legal advisory service to the government for all government land transactions and associated matters. It is responsible for the issue, renewal, variation and termination of government leases as well as for the drafting, completion and registration of conditions of sale, grant and exchange of government land, the granting of mining leases, the registration of owners' corporations, the apportionment of government rents and premia, and the recovery of outstanding rents. It also provides conveyancing services for the Housing Authority in connection with the sale of flats built under the Home Ownership Scheme and for the Financial Secretary Incorporated in connection with the extension of non-renewable government leases, mortgages to secure interest-free loans to private schools, the purchase of properties for government staff quarters and group housing schemes for the elderly.
Land Sales
Important land transactions in 1987 included the sale by public auction of a prime site of 2 098 square metres in the Central business area on Hong Kong Island for commercial, including hotel, development. This site is located in Des Voeux Road opposite the Central Market.