days thereof. Since late 1959 they have been granted for 99 years from 1st July 1898, less the last three days. All the New Territories Crown leases therefore expire three days before the expiry of the period of the lease of the New Territories from China.
Sales and Grants of Land
34. 434 agreements for the sale or grant of Crown land were registered. The various types, with the corresponding 1963-64 figures, were as follows:
Conditions of Sale
Conditions of Extension
Conditions of Exchange
Conditions of Grant ...
Conditions of Regrant
:
1963-64
1964-65
255
153
14
19
28
54
--
34
43
217
165
548
434
35. Sales of Crown land continued throughout the year, but from October 1964, only about four or five lots every two or three weeks were put up for auction at the City Hall. At the fall of the hammer the successful bidder for a non-industrial lot has to pay a specified sum as deposit and in part payment of the premium, the balance of premium being payable within one month. For industrial sites in the Kwun Tong, Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung areas 90% of the premium may be paid in up to twenty equal annual instalments with interest at 5% per annum. In sales of industrial land outside those special areas, the successful bidder for an industrial lot pays the premium by four equal instalments, interest-free, over two years, which is the normal building covenant period for such lots, the first instalment within three days of the sale, the second within twelve months, the third within eighteen months and the fourth and last within twenty-four months from the sale. One or two Land Office Assistant Registrars attend all auction sales to supervise the execution of the Conditions of Sale by the successful purchasers.
36. The number of private treaty grants increased slightly from thirty-four in 1963–64 to forty-three in 1964-65. The purposes for which these forty-three grants were made were as follows:
12