In the year ended 31 March 2006, the Land Registry Trading Fund achieved a net profit after taxation of $140 million and attained a return on ANFA of 31.5 per cent.

When compared with 2004/05, overall revenue increased by $11.5 million (up 2.6 per cent). Operating expenses also increased by $12.3 million (up 4.5 per cent) mainly due to a full year charge of amortisation cost of the Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) and expenses incurred in the preparation for title registration.

In an attempt to further reduce costs to customers since the reduction of the search and copying fees on 12 February 2005, the Land Registry Trading Fund decided to reduce the application fee for opening an IRIS Online Services Subscriber Account from $5,000 to $2,000 (a reduction of 60 per cent) and the application fee for each supplementary Login ID from $1,000 to $500 (a reduction of 50 per cent) with effect from 1 April 2006.

Small and medium enterprises will find the use of the IRIS Online Services more attractive for its lower costs in obtaining the land records.

We will continue to exercise strict control on costs. Additional expenditure is expected to be incurred in the preparation for title registration. It is our target to cover these increased costs from further efficiency savings. Revenue and return on ANFA will depend mainly on transaction volumes in the property market. This in turn depends on wider economic factors and the trend of mortgage interest rates. We expect the property market to remain fairly stable in the coming financial year.