ENG-1984 — Page 228

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

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land registration throughout the New Territories under a phased programme; the district land offices in Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long were taken over in 1982, the Sha Tin office in 1983 and the Sai Kung office in 1984.

The Land Office has responsibility for the registration of all instruments affecting land; the drafting, completion and registration of conditions of sale, grant and exchange of Crown land; the granting of mining leases; the registration of owners' corporations; the apportionment of Crown rents and premia; and the recovery of outstanding Crown rents. It also provides conveyancing services for the Housing Authority in connection with the sale of flats built under the Home Ownership Scheme and for the Colonial Treasurer Incorporated in connection with re-grants, interest-free loans to schools and the purchase of properties for government staff quarters and homes for the elderly. The Land Office gives legal and other advice to the government on matters relating to land and government land transactions.

Since June 1981, under the Land Registration Ordinance, all memorials delivered to the Land Office for registration have been microfilmed. All the 2 096 156 memorials registered before that date had been microfilmed by the end of 1984. They are transferred to satellite storage and are available for search at the Land Office in microfilm form only.

Work on the computerisation of Land Office register cards, with a view to introducing a computerised land registration system, continued on schedule during the year.

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The Land Registration Ordinance provides that all instruments registered under it shall have priority according to their respective dates of registration. This provision applies unless they are registered within one month of execution, in which case priority generally relates back to the date of the instrument. In the case of charging orders and pending actions, priority runs from the day following the date of actual registration. The ordinance also provides that unregistered instruments, other than bona fide leases at a rack rent for any term not exceeding three years, shall be 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.

During the year, 176 625 instruments were registered at the Land Office, compared with 160 383 in 1983. Detailed statistics are at Appendix 29. At the end of the year, the card index of property owners contained the names of 468 015 owners, an increase of 23 144 over the previous year. Some own several properties throughout the territory, but most are owners or part-owners of small, individual flats.

Important Transactions

Important land transactions during 1984 included the sale by public auction of a site of approximately 6 300 square metres adjacent to and over a portion of the Mass Transit Railway at Admiralty Station, on the periphery of the Central business area of Hong Kong Island. This site will be developed for commercial purposes including, possibly, a hotel.

The sale by private treaty grant to the Mass Transit Railway Corporation of a site comprising some 17 hectares at Kornhill, Quarry Bay, was completed in April. This project, part of which straddles the MTR Tai Koo Shing Station, will provide a comprehensive development including over 100 000 square metres of commercial floor space, about 9 500 apartments and a full range of supporting facilities. The development will be phased with completion expected by 1996.

In Kowloon, one of the last remaining sites in the popular Tsim Sha Tsui East shopping area was sold by auction in July for commercial or composite commercial/residential development, including the option to provide a hotel.