LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
schools, hospitals, and social welfare and other community services. During the year, 19 sites for housing (including some at Chai Wan, Repulse Bay, Hung Hom and Stanley) with a total area of 24 hectares were sold; seven sites with a total area of 16 hectares were granted for the Home Ownership Scheme; and three sites with a total area of five hectares were sold for the Private Sector Participation Scheme.
Land Registration
Hong Kong operates a deeds registration system under the Land Registration Ordinance. The Land Registry is responsible for registering all documents affecting land. The Land Registry comprises the Urban Land Registry and eight New Territories Land Registries.
The Land Registration Ordinance provides that all land documents registered under it shall have priority according to their respective dates of registration. If a document is registered within one month of execution, priority shall relate to the date of execution of the document. Registration is essential to the protection of a land title but does not guarantee it.
A land document is registered by delivering it to the appropriate land registry with a form containing the essential particulars of the document and the prescribed fee. These particulars are then entered into a register for the relevant piece of land or property.
All land registers are computerised. Each land register provides a complete picture of all transactions affecting a property, from the grant of the lease. The registers, memorials and related land documents are available for search by members of the public at the respective land registries on payment of a small fee. A purchaser or mortgagee will be able to check and satisfy himself from the land register as to the nature of the title he is intending to purchase or accept by way of security.
The Direct Access Services, an on-line computer search facility, allows its subscribers, mainly solicitors and other professional firms, to have direct access to the computerised registers and to place orders for copies of land records from computer terminals in their own offices.
The Document Imaging System enables land documents presented for registration to be scanned and stored as electronic images on optical discs. The images can be retrieved and distributed quickly.
All paper land documents in the eight New Territories Land Registries were converted into electronic images in May 1997. Conversion of the microfilmed land documents of the Urban Land Registry into electronic images started in June 1997 for completion by the end of 1998.
The Memorial Day Book, which is computerised and contains essential data of land documents lodged for registration each day, can be viewed by its subscribers on computers in their offices.
Land Registration statistics are at Appendix 40.
Government Conveyancing
The Legal Advisory and Conveyancing Office of the Lands Department provides professional legal services to the government for all government land transactions and associated matters. It is responsible for the issue, renewal and variation of
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