Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1966-1967 — Page 16

General Review

22. A general review of conditions in the Property Market and their effect on the work of the Land Office is given in Part I in paragraphs 5 to 11.

Deeds Registration

23. Under the Land Registration Ordinance the Land Office is responsible for the registration of deeds and other instruments relating to land in Hong Kong, Kowloon, portions of New Kowloon, and a few lots in the New Territories which have been exempted from the provisions of Part II of the New Territories Ordinance. The Ordinance provides that all such deeds, etc., so registered shall have priority according to the priority of their respective dates of registration, and that with the exception of bona fide leases at rack rents for any term not exceeding three years, all such deeds, etc., which are not registered shall, as against any subsequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration, be absolutely null and void. No notice, actual or constructive, of any prior unregistered instrument affects the priority of any duly registered instrument. Where, however, deeds etc. are registered within one month of execution, if executed in the Colony, or, if executed elsewhere, within twelve months of execution, they take priority according to the respective dates thereof. Legally the system is one of registration of deeds and not of title; but in view of the above provisions instruments relating to land are always registered promptly after execution, and the Land Registers show the devolution of title to each property and all incumbrances on it.

24. Table III shows the number of instruments registered in each year since 1957-58; Table IV, the numbers of instruments by categories in each year since 1962-63; and Table V, the total considerations in the principal categories for each year since 1957-58.

25. 49,582 instruments were registered in 1966-67, 4,725 (10.5%) more than the 1965-66 total, and only 193 short of the record figure of 49,775 instruments registered in 1964-65. The figures given in Table IV show increases over those for 1965-66 in all the major categories of instruments except leases. Assignments rose by 1,607 (8.4%) to the new record figure of 20,855. Of these, 693 were assignments of whole lots, sections or subsections, and 20,162 assignments of undivided shares in land coupled with the right to use one or more units in the building erected thereon. The latter total, comprising mainly residential flats, was the highest total ever recorded in this category.

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