26. Despite this increase in the number of assignments the total of the considerations mentioned therein dropped by $50,484,000 (4.1%) to $1,176,747,000, of which $989,130,000 represents the total considera- tions in assignments of undivided shares. Dividing this last total by 21,907, the number of units affected by the 20,162 assignments of undivided shares, one gets an average consideration of about $45,200 for transactions of this type as against $48,800 in the previous year. This decrease is no doubt due in part to the existence of a buyers' market, but may also to some extent be due to a trend towards providing smaller and cheaper flats.
27. With the increase in the number of assignments there was naturally also an increase in the number of mortgages, the total rising from 7,303 in 1965-66 to 8,293, including 100 building mortgages. The grand total of mortgage considerations, however, fell to $930,844,000, 12.2% below last year's total of $1,059,818,000, and 43.6% below the record total of $1,651,911,000 in 1964-65 when bank and other loans were easy to get in the boom conditions then prevailing. The figure included $42,701,000 in respect of the 100 building mortgages, which therefore averaged about $427,000 each. The number of re-assignments rose by 1,126 (24.1%) to the new record figure of 5,805, and the relevant considerations rose by $114,309,000 (24.3%) to $583,976,000.
28. The only other items in Tables IV and V that call for special mention are the increase in the number of Agreements for Sale and Purchase from 6,417 to 7,688, partly reflecting the practice of spreading payment for flats over an extended period, during which the purchaser's only title is his registered Agreement for Sale and Purchase; the further sharp decline from 148 to 25 in the number of Exclusion Orders made under Section 38 of the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance; the increase from 209 to 244 in the number of Re-development Notices served under Section 3 of the Demolished Buildings (Re-development of Sites) Ordinance; and the grand total of considerations in all instruments which was down by 3.9% from $2,806,098,000 last year to $2,695,675,000.
29. All deeds relating to flats and other units in new multi-storey buildings have for the past four years been registered on cards in accordance with the new card registration system described in last year's Report. This system has been so successful that it has been decided to transfer all the records now contained in the old type bound registers on to cards. Since the maximum benefit of the new system
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