LAND AND HOUSING
131
and Kowloon in recent years have been under study for some time, and a draft bill, which will enable the individual owners in a building to form themselves into a corporation for the proper management of the common areas, was published in May for public comment. In general the bill has been welcomed, though consultations with a wide variety of organisations and individuals concerned with this problem have produced a number of comments and suggestions on points of detail, which were being studied at the end of the year.
LAND OFFICE
The Land Office, which is a branch of the Registrar General's Department, is responsible for the registration of all instruments affecting land other than those affecting New Territories land registrable in District Offices; the settling and registration of con- ditions of sale, grant and exchange of Crown land; the issue, renewal, variation and termination of Crown leases; the granting of mining leases; and advice to the Government generally on matters relating to land.
The system of registration, introduced in 1844, is broadly similar to that in the Yorkshire Deeds Registries in England. The Land Registration Ordinance provides that all deeds and instruments registered under it shall have priority according to their respective dates of registration, and that deeds and instruments not registered (other than bona fide leases at rack rent for any term not exceeding three years) shall be absolutely null and void as against any sub- sequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee for valuable considera- tion. Registration is therefore essential to the protection of title, but does not guarantee it.
The number of instruments registered during the year rose by 14.7 per cent from last year's total of 48,365 to 55,482. The figure included 1,238 assignments of whole buildings or sites (against 736 in 1968), 22,050 assignments of flats and other units in multi-storey buildings (against 20,826), 4,896 agreements for sale of such flats and units (against 2,799), and 12,479 mortgages (against 10,726). As a consequence of the increase in new building projects, the number of building mortgages registered during the year rose from 55 in 1968 to 121, and the number of orders excluding premises from the Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, which usually have to
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