MARINE DEPARTMENT LIBRARY
and Tenant Ordinance undertaken to complete within a specified period, or projects on lots sold by auction or by private treaty in respect of which purchasers had entered into similar building covenants. After completing a review of the position, the Government on 14th October 1968 further extended the free extension of one year granted in November 1965 for yet another year (see paragraph 45).
6. In view of the substantial improvement in the supply of new private accommodation in 1966-67 the Rent Increases (Domestic Premises) Control Ordinance had been allowed to lapse on the due date, 30th June 1966, but it continued to protect certain tenancies until 30th June 1968. Most developers and owners for investment purposes, however, derived little immediate benefit from the lapsing of the Ordinance, and up to the end of May 1968 sharp drops in flat rents were still being reported. By September, however, an improve- ment in the market for rented property began to be noted, and as the shortage of accommodation increased it was not surprising that by the end of the year there was a noticeable rise in rents for better class accommodation in selected areas such as the Peak and Repulse Bay.
7. There remains the prospect of an enormous amount of re- development to come in some of the older parts of the urban areas in which action has been taken in hundreds of cases under the Demolished Buildings (Re-development of Sites) Ordinance to require the owner to re-develop the site of a demolished building. During the year Re-development Orders were registered in 114 cases, making a total of 1,019 since the Ordinance was passed in 1963.
8. The foregoing is then the background to the Land Office statistics for the year, the salient features of which, summarized from the details given in Part II and the relevant Tables, are as follows. The number of instruments of all categories registered was 50,015, which was a new record figure and 6,712 more than the total of 43,303 in 1967-68. These included 836 assignments of whole properties, 21,458 assignments of units in buildings, also a record figure, 11,417 mortgages and 2,669 agreements for sale and purchase. The grant total of considerations expressed in all instruments was $2,458m., an increase of $410m. against the figure in 1967-68. Increases in aggregate considerations were recorded in all categories except miscellaneous instruments. Building mortgages totalled $55m., as compared with $18m. for the previous year. Notwithstanding this increased activity good progress
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