ENG-1967 — Page 166

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LAND AND HOUSING

It was also decided during the year that for churches or temples on unrestricted non-renewable leases, which had been sold at a full-value premium, new leases may be granted at a premium payable by instalments and amounting to two-thirds of the full market value of the lot at the date of expiry of the lease.

An increasing number of 75-year renewable leases are falling due for renewal. In these cases, under terms announced in 1963, the Crown lessee of an underdeveloped lot has two alternatives. He may renew either at a Crown rent based on the full rental value of the land, without added lease covenants or, at a lower Crown rent if he is prepared to accept a covenant limiting the development on the lot to that existing at the time of renewal. During the year it was decided that 75-year renewable leases of lots registered in the New Territories District Land Offices should be renewed at the expiration of the first term in 1973, without change in Crown rent and that appropriate legislation would be introduced for this purpose. Other New Territories leases recorded in the Registrar General's Department would be renewed at a re-assessed rent on the same terms as urban lots. A further concession, applicable to all these lots which are subject to re-assessment of Crown rent, permitted owners intending to develop, and whose leases had less than 20 years to run, to surrender their existing leases and be granted new ones at a premium payable either by lump sum or by three annual instalments. Alternatively, an owner who waited until the year of expiry of the first term of his lease, might then pay either an annual re-assessed Crown rent or a lump sum premium in lieu.

With the increasing need to seek sites for major schemes in the New Territories, outline development plans have been prepared, or are under preparation, for building new towns and expanding existing market towns in areas best suited to industry and high-` density housing. These are Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung, Castle Peak, Sha Tin, Yuen Long, Tai Po, Shek Wu Hui, and Junk Bay. However, most of these development areas contain a high propor- tion of leased agricultural land and there is not enough Crown land to serve public purposes. As development proceeds, Crown lessees are invited to surrender agricultural and village or rural building land in exchange for a re-grant of building land with