5. There were also many other new projects in the pipeline, includ- ing projects planned in previous years and which developers had as a condition of obtaining an Exclusion Order under the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance undertaken to complete within a specified period and projects on lots sold by auction or by private treaty in respect of which purchasers had entered into similar building covenants.
6. The shortage of accommodation, coupled with growing demand, led to an increase in some rents, but since it was upon the comparatively small number of substantial increases that public attention was focussed, a somewhat distorted picture was presented. Nevertheless the Government was sufficiently concerned over the problem to impose a freeze on the rents of domestic accommodation with effect from 30th January 1970. This was intended as a temporary measure pending the drafting of more dtailed legislation, which had however not been enacted by the end of the year under review.
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 83 cases, making a total of 1,102 since the Ordinance was passed in 1963.
8. The foregoing is 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 58,968, which was 8,953 more than the record total of 50,015 in 1968-69. These included 1,347 assignments of whole properties, 22,863 assignments of units in buildings, also a record figure, 13,542 mortgages and 6,164 agreements for sale and purchase. The grand total of considerations expressed in all instruments was $3,471m., an increase of $1,013m. against the figure in 1968-69. Increases in aggregate considerations were recorded in all categories of instruments. Building mortgages totalled $137m., as com- pared with $55m. for the previous year. Notwithstanding this increased activity good progress continued to be made in the Crown lease section, and the total of 493 issued was the highest for any post-war year. 323 lots or sections were surrendered to the Crown, and 5 lots re- entered for breach of the lease conditions. The number of landowners
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