Deeds Registration
6. Throughout 1955/56 boom conditions prevailed in the property market. The perennial demand for housing was stronger than ever; land values continued to rise; and large new blocks of flats sprang up all over the urban area. The natural consequence of these conditions was that the number of instru- ments registered under the Land Registration Ordinance soared to the new record total of 12,041, 2,214 (22%) more than the previous year's record figure of 9,827. It is interesting also to note that the number of instruments registered in the year 1955/56 exceeded the total number registered during the whole of the first 38 years after registration commenced in 1844.
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The sum total of the purchase prices, mortgage debts and other considerations stated in the instruments registered also rose to the new record figure of $685,401,655.13, over $80,000,000 more than the previous year's record figure. The rapid growth in the amount of money involved in land transac- tions in post-war years is shown in Table I. It will be noted that the total for 1955/56 is more than double the total of $325,884,000 for 1952/53, only three years back, which was itself then a record figure.
Among the large transactions recorded in the year under review were the Assignments of the old Hongkong Hotel site in Pedder Street for $11,000,000, (Stamp Duty, $550,000) and of the Jardine Matheson building at 18 Des Voeux Road Central for $6,100,000 (Stamp Duty $305,000), and Agree- ments for the sale of Messrs. Butterfield & Swire's offices at 1 Connaught Road Central for $8,480,000, and of Section A of Hung Hom Marine Lot No. 1, part of The Hong Kong & Whampoa Dock Co. Ltd's. property in Hung Hom, for $5,775,000.
9. Table I shows the number of instruments registered with the totals of the considerations stated therein for each year since the war, with for comparison the average of the numbers registered during the years 1935/39. Table II shows the number of instruments registered in 1955/56 by categories with
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