Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1953-1954 — Page 7

PART I

LAND REGISTRY

Deeds Registration.

1.

The total number of instruments registered under the Land Registration Ordinance (Cap. 128) for 1953/54 was 7,350, which is the highest yearly total ever recorded. This is nearly double the average of 3,795 for the years 1938 and 1939, the two pre-war years included in Table I appended, and exceeds the previous record total (1949/50) by 536.

2. With the increase in the number of instruments registered, the total of the considerations stated in the various instruments expanded to the new record figure of $381,807,035.89, which exceeds the total for 1952/53 by nearly $56,000,000.

3.

The total number of instruments registered in each of the last ten years for which figures are available is given in Table I. Table II shows the number of documents registered in each category in 1953/54. Noteworthy increases have taken place in the numbers of Assignments and Mortgages and Transfers of Mortgages: Assignments totalled 2,884 against 2,357 for 1952/53, Mortgages etc. 1,735 against 1,521. The rise in the number of Assignments is largely accounted for by the rapidly increasing number of cases of outright sales of flats to individual owners.

Crown Leases.

4. 251 Crown Leases were issued in 1953/54 as compared with 183 in 1952/53. This is the highest number issued in any one post-war year. The fees for the year at $36,750.00 were also a post-war record. Table III shows the numbers and types of Leases issued, by localities.

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