TNAG-0670-FCO40-819-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-land-in-New-Territories-1977 — Page 32

Ref.: NT:4419:C IV

CONFIDENTIAL

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

A Brief Note on Land Matters and Compensation

in the New Territories

Privately-owned land, when the New Territories themselves were leased, was surveyed and a register of ownership compiled. These records, called the Block Crown Lease, replaced the title, landowners in the New Territories possessed from the Chinese government. The Block Crown Lease is actually a series of books in which the terms of the lease are set out at the beginning and then blocks or lists of lots follow to which the lease applies. The schedule to the lists indicates the use and type of land holding and area at the date of the survey, and the block lease restricts it to that use.

Land granted subsequent to the Block Crown Lease is leased for the remaining portion of a term of 99 years from 1898, subject to whatever conditions may be necessary and desirable.

The Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance, Cap. 124 gives the Governor the powers to declare the resumption (compulsory purchase) of land to be a public purpose. All resumptions are referred to Executive Council for approval.

Most

The development of the new towns, expansion of the market towns, industrial estates, reservoirs, roadworks, have required resumption of private land on a large scale. of the land resumed for development and for public works in the New Territories is agricultural land, but a small amount of building land is acquired. The agricultural land is usually scheduled as paddy land, and so far as Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance is concerned, its value is the assessed agricultural value of the land: this nowadays is about $2 to $5 a square foot.

In addition to the agricultural value, Government pays an ex-gratia amount to allow for policies, such as granting permission to build houses on agricultural land, which give the land a value over and above its value as agricultural land. In New Territories towns this total offer is $10 a square foot, outside the towns it is $4-7.

In 1960, in order:

(a) to give landowners an opportunity to participate in

town development, and

(b)

to lessen objection to land resumption for general urban development not necessarily related to any

CONFIDENTIAL

/specific