Land Administration and Practice in Hong Kong

✍ Scribed by Roger Nissim

• Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 241
• Edition: Fifth Edition, New
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The authoritative guide to the current practices of land administration in Hong Kong.

This book examines both the historical context and current practices of land administration in Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong has an open and business-friendly environment, it is underpinned by a socialist leasehold land tenure system. The government is landlord to virtually all land and so it plays a pivotal role in the administration of this scare, and therefore, valuable resource. As land administration is governed by private contract law rather than legislation, it is constantly evolving with the courts handing down significant decisions on a regular basis. Government practice has had to respond to this as well as the community’s concern over how best land can be administered. This new edition includes substantial and important updates that will ensure that the book will continue to be useful to both students and practitioners of surveying, architecture, planning, and law, as well as to the wider business and financial community.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
Preface to the Fifth Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Introduction
Section I – Historical Development of Land Administration
1. The First Land Sales, 1841-1842
2. The Early Years, 1843-1898
3. 1898 Onwards: The New Territories Lease
4. The Sino-British Joint Declaration 1984 and the Basic Law 1990
5. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government
Section II – Present-Day Land Administration
6. Economic Background, Land Needs, and Reclamations
7. Lands Department Functions under Administrative Law
8. Land Exchange and Lease Modifications
9. Development Control in Older Lease Conditions
10. Access Arrangements and Rights-of-Way
11. Town Planning Controls and Development Restrictions in Lease Conditions
12. Land Management and Lease Enforcement
Section Ill – Land Administration Problems and Practice Associated with the New Territories
13. Land Exchange Entitlements (Also Known as Letters A/B)
14. Small House (丁屋) Policy and the 300-Foot Rule
15. Limitations Ordinance, Adverse Possession, and the Principle of Encroachment
16. Tsos (祖) and Tongs (堂) and Their Impact on Land Assembly
17. Succession
18. Fung Shui (風水) and Graves
19. Boundary Disputes, Missing Lots, Missing Documents, and Secondary Evidence
Section IV – Future Developments in Land Administration
20. How Planning and Land Policy Could Be Used to Enhance Conservation in Hong Kong
21. The Land Titles Ordinance 2004
Appendices
Glossary
Bibliography
Index