Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1965-1966 — Page 18

Sales and Grants of Land

35. 233 agreements for the sale or grant of Crown land were registered. The various types, with the corresponding 1964-65 figures, were as follows:

Conditions of Sale

Conditions of Extension

Conditions of Exchange

Conditions of Grant

Conditions of Regrant

1964-65

1965-66

153

29

19

14

54

52

43

91

165

47

434

233

36. During the year 43 lots of Crown land were put up for sale by public auction at the City Hall, but only 16 of these were sold. 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 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.

37. During the previous year the 131 acres of land formerly occupied by the Royal Naval Dockyard had been offered for sale by tender either as a whole or as two separate groups of lots. The last date for submitting tenders was 1st March 1965, but notwithstanding that world-wide publicity had been given to the sale, only one tender was received, from a local source. This tender was for the group of lots forming the westernmost part of the former

dockyard, and closest

to the city centre. On 22nd May 1965 the Government announced that the figure tendered was well below the estimated value of the land, and the tender was accordingly not accepted.

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