ENG-1991 — Page 242

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

Registration is therefore essential to the protection of title, but does not guarantee it. Approval in principle was given by the government to investigate the merits of changing the present system of land registration to one of title registration. A working party chaired by the Registrar General and comprising prominent members of the legal profession was set up and has made its report to government on the new title registration system.

The records of transactions affecting land on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, New Kowloon and some of the urban areas of the New Territories are kept at the Land Office, Victoria. Those relating to transactions affecting land in the remainder of the New Territories are kept in the appropriate District Land Offices in the New Territories. Before any land transaction is completed a land search to ascertain property ownership should always be made. During the year, 3 168 942 such public land searches were made and 823 842 instruments registered throughout the territory, compared with 2 604 294 and 673 400 respectively in 1990. At the end of the year, there were 1 447 391 property owners, an increase of 127 120 over the previous year.

The Conveyancing and Legal Advisory Section of the Land Division provides professional legal services to the government for all government land transactions and associated matters. It is responsible for the issue, renewal, variation and termination of government leases as well as the drafting, completion and registration of conditions of sale, grants and exchanges of government lands, registration of owners' corporations, the apportionment of government rents and premia, and the recovery of outstanding 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 Financial Secretary Incorporated in connection with the extension of non-renewable government leases, the purchase and sale of government accommodation in private developments, mortgages to secure interest-free loans to private schools, the purchase of properties for government staff quarters and group housing schemes for the elderly. This section is also responsible for the processing of the Consent Applications which are governed by the rules of the Land Officer's Consent Scheme. During the year, 22 applications involving 11 754 units in the urban areas were approved and in the New Territories 48 applications involving 15 604 units were approved.

Land Registration statistics are at Appendix 34.

Survey and Mapping

The Survey and Mapping Office is responsible for defining and recording land boundaries of all existing and new land developments, providing and maintaining the territory-wide survey control system, mapping the territory at various scales for land administration, engineering and government purposes, managing land information and preserving the territory's land records.

Geodetic control systems, which are horizontal and vertical control networks covering the whole territory, have been established and maintained to a high degree of accuracy. These systems provide the necessary origin and control points for cadastral (property boundary), topographical mapping, engineering and other surveys.

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are having a major impact on all forms of geodetic survey worldwide. A team of UK surveyors visited Hong Kong in 1991 and carried out a major survey to relate the Hong Kong co-ordinate system to the World Grid System (WG84) used by the GPS Satellites.

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