ENG-1963 — Page 282

224

LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS

leases at rack rents for any term not exceeding three years) shall be absolutely null and void as against any subsequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration. Registration is therefore essential to the protection of title, but does not guarantee it. Deeds affecting land in Hong Kong, Kowloon, portions of New Kowloon, and a few lots in the New Territories are registered in the Land Office, Victoria; deeds affecting land in the rest of New Kowloon and all other lots in the New Terri- tories are registered at the District Land Offices of the New Territories Administration (land tenure is described in chapter 10). The Land Office, besides being a deeds registry, advises the Government on, and does the Government conveyancing in, all matters relating to land, including the sale, grant and exchange of Crown land, both in the urban areas and in the New Territories.

The building boom of recent years continued in 1963 although the demand for the higher grade and more expensive type of flat has now been satisfied. The sale by Government of eight to twelve plots of land by public auction was a regular weekly feature at which bidding was usually keen. Developers and brokers were likewise very active in buying up old properties for redevelopment. In view of the extremely high price of land in all areas it has become necessary for economic reasons to build upwards, and in almost all parts of the urban areas large new blocks of flats were erected. Most of the schemes were undertaken by limited companies specially incorporated for the purpose there were no fewer than 415 land investment and development companies in- corporated during the year. These companies sell off to individual purchasers the flats, shops, floors or other units in the building erected or being erected, each purchaser getting an undivided share in the land and building coupled with the right of exclusive posses- sion of a particular unit. The trend towards larger buildings was accentuated during the year. Assignments registered in the Land Office revealed significant increases in the number of new sub- divided buildings having between 50 and 99 flats and between 100 and 199 flats; on the other hand there was a significant dimi- nution in the number of new sub-divided buildings having between five and nine flats only.

In certain cases where the conditions under which the land was held gave the necessary power, the sale of flats in uncompleted