TNAG-0806-FCO40-1011-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-land-in-the-New-Territo-1979 — Page 105

ENCLOSURE 1

NEW TERRITORIES URBAN LAND EXCHANGE POLICY

The Block Crown Lease

Leased Crown land in the New Territories is mostly

held through Block Crown Leases. Each Block Crown Lease

consists of a survey plan of land holdings within a

demarcation district on which each lot is defined and

numbered, a record containing the name of the land-owner

of each lot shown on the survey plan, its area and use and

the Crown rent payable, and a document signed by the then

Governor setting out the terms of the lease on which the

land was granted. The constitutional authority for the

grant of the leases was the New Territories Ordinance

(Chapter 97).

2.

The Crown's control over the use of land leased

under a Block Crown Lease derives principally from a

covenant that the lessee shall not convert any land

expressed to be demised as agricultural or garden ground

for building without the licence of the Crown. It is also

this clause which determines its basic value, although the

commercial land market also takes account of the possibility

of land being accepted by Government for a building

exchange and of permission being given for the construction

of buildings.

/The

Page 105Page 106