Ordinance undertaken to complete within a specified period, and proj- ects on lots sold by auction or by private treaty in respect of which purchasers had entered into similar building covenants.
6. As accommodation remained scarce and demand strong, there was naturally an upward trend in rents. The more detailed legislation envisaged when the Government imposed a freeze on the rents of do- mestic accommodation in January 1970 was enacted in June 1970 in the shape of the Rent Increases (Domestic Premises) Control Ordinance (see paragraph 195). This legislation was well received by tenants, and by the end of the year was believed to be achieving its aim of protecting tenants of most domestic accommodation against unreasonable rent increases.
7. There remains the prospect of an enormous amount of re- development to come in some of the older parts of the urban areas in which action has been taken in hundreds of cases under the Demolished Buildings (Re-development of Sites) Ordinance to require the owner to re-develop the site of a demolished building. During the year Re- development Orders were registered in 65 cases, making a total of 1,187 since the Ordinance was passed in 1963.
8. The foregoing is the background to the Land Office statistics for the year, the salient features of which, summarized from the details given in Part II and the relevant Tables, are as follows. The number of in- struments of all categories registered was 70,793, which was 11,825 more than the record total of 58,968 in 1969-70. These included 1,559 assignments of whole properties, 24,488 assignments of units in buildings, 16,900 mortgages and 10,206 agreements for sale and purchase, the last three being also record figures. The grand total of considerations ex- pressed in all instruments was $5,397m., an increase of $1,926m. over the previous record figure in 1969-70. Increases in aggregate considera- tions were recorded in all categories of instruments. Building mortgages totalled $231m. as compared with $137m. for the previous year. A total of 324 Crown leases was issued, 426 lots or sections were surrendered to the Crown, and one lot was re-entered for breach of the lease condi- tions. The number of landowners (excluding mortgagees) rose by 14,447 over the previous year to the impressive total of 191,243.
Companies, Trade Marks and Patents
9. The rapid expansion of business activity had its effect on the Companies Registry, where the year saw many records broken. 3,461 new companies were incorporated during the year, 649 more than last
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