Property Owner A owns a mortgage-free property and is living in it. He is worried that his property might have been fraudulently mortgaged or sold without his knowledge. However, it is too troublesome and not cost effective to conduct frequent land searches to check if any unexpected mortgage or transaction related documents have been lodged for registration against his property.

Property Owner B is residing overseas but owns a number of properties in Hong Kong, some have been rented out and some are vacant. He always wants to keep an eye on his properties and hopes that he can be alerted in case there are any changes to the land registers of his properties.

Property Owner C and his wife are planning to move and have appointed an estate agent to sell their flat. Before signing the provisional sale and purchase agreement with the prospective purchaser Mr. X, the estate agent informed the couple that Mr. X had withheld to proceed with the transaction as he noted from the relevant land register that a charge has been registered against the flat by the property management company a week ago for arrears of management fee. The couple has no idea about the charge and they wonder if there is any means that they can learn about the charge earlier so that their plan will not be disrupted.

Property A!ert (the Service), launched by the Land Registry on 28 January 2019, is the solution for the above property owners. Upon their subscription to Property A!ert , the Land Registry will send an email alert to them whenever any instruments affecting their properties have been lodged for registration and when the instruments have been registered. The Service aims to help property owners, no matter they are living in Hong Kong or overseas, early detect unexpected or suspicious instruments delivered for registration against their properties, thus enabling them to take prompt follow-up actions and/or seek legal advice.

Want a hassle-free subscription service? The Land Registry offers a one-off subscription option for Property A!ert. With a one-time payment of HK$580 per land register, you can enjoy the convenience and benefits of Property A!ert as long as the property is held under your name and you do not have to bother about renewing the subscription anymore.

Interested to know more? Details of Property A!ert as well as the information leaflet and application form are available for downloading at the Land Registry’s website.

Be a smart property owner! Subscribe to Property A!ert to stay vigilant of your property with ease!

e-Alert Service for Authorized Institutions

The e-Alert Service introduced for the authorized institutions under the Banking Ordinance (Cap.155) (the AIs) since February 2017 has been a useful tool for AIs to manage their credit risks in mortgage lending. In line with the global trend towards electronic business and to provide greater security and convenience to users, we have launched Phase 1 of the e-Channel for the e-Alert Service for AIs on 14 January 2019. The initiative is welcomed by AIs.

Subscriber AIs can now enjoy the convenience of submitting their applications for subscription of service orders online through the e-Channel website at www.ealert-ai.landreg.gov.hk which provides the following longer service hours to online submit their applications:

Monday – Friday : 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday : 8 a.m. to 12 noon.

To ensure safe and secure online transactions, only registered users of subscriber AIs are allowed to access the e-Channel. While we will continue to accept applications for subscription of service orders delivered to us manually for the time being, we highly recommend subscriber AIs to switch to the e-Channel.

For continuous improvement, the Land Registry will add a facility for online submission of other service applications as well as more user functions, including maintenance of account information, under Phase 2 of the e-Channel which is tentatively scheduled to be launched in mid-2020.

Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) Enhancements

With improving customer experience and user-friendliness in mind, we launched the following enhancements to IRIS in January and March 2019 respectively:

provide a new online credit card payment platform supporting payment by JCB and UnionPay cards in addition to VISA and Mastercard; and

Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) Enhancements_Image 1

provide a new function for the public to enquire the current status of a lodged document in the registration process.

Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) Enhancements_Image 2

Revision of Remark for Withheld Instruments shown on the Land Register

With effect from 23 March 2019, when an instrument is withheld from registration under the Land Registration Regulations, Cap. 128A (LRR), the remark for the withheld instrument shown in the "Deeds Pending Registration" section of the land register concerned has been revised from "(暫緩註冊Registration Withheld)" to "(中止註冊Registration Withheld)" to follow the wording used in the LRR. A Land Registry Circular Memorandum (LRCM) No. 1/19 on this revision was issued on 15 March 2019.

Sale of Street Index (51st edition) and New Territories Lot / Address Cross Reference Table (20th edition)

Our new Street Index (SI) and the New Territories Lot / Address Cross Reference Table (CRT) released for sale from 30 April 2019 are your best tools when you want to correlate property addresses, building names or lot numbers for conducting land searches.

In the new SI, 411 amendments with 25 new streets and 55 new lots/ sections/ subsections have been added. For the new CRT, 1,846 amendments have been made and 14 new streets and 1,485 new lots/sections/subsections have been added.

The price of compact discs of the SI and CRT is HK$370 each. The respective license fees are HK$2,960 for a computer network linked to less than 50 terminals and HK$5,920 if linked to 50 terminals or more. The order forms can be downloaded here.

The SI and CRT are also available online. These free versions are for browsing only. Both publications are also accessible on the IRIS website through this hyperlink.

Sale of Street Index (51st edition) and New Territories Lot / Address Cross Reference Table (20th edition)_Image 1

Performance Pledges 2019/20

The Land Registry is committed to providing quality services to customers. We have achieved all performance targets set for 2018/19 and launched the following service standards and performance targets for owners' corporation services in 2019/20:

Service Type	Service Standard	Target Performance (% meeting service standard)
(a) Registration of Owners' Corporations*	30 working days	90
(b) Supply of copies of owners' corporation records	30 minutes	90

* Excluding complicated cases and applications that require further supporting documents for processing

The Performance Pledges for 2019/20 have come into effect from 1 April 2019. You can view here or obtain the information leaflet at the offices of the Land Registry.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

With a view to gauging the level of customer satisfaction with the Land Registry’s services, the Land Registry commissioned an external consultant to conduct a comprehensive customer satisfaction survey during November to December last year. The survey comprised telephone interview, field survey and postal/online questionnaires. About 1,290 completed questionnaires were obtained.

The overall satisfaction level of our services, including the services of the Customer Centre/New Territories Search Offices, IRIS Online Services and Customer Service Hotline, is 89.4%. As compared with the last survey conducted in 2014/15, the satisfaction rate increased by 16.1%. We are pleased to note the result and will follow up on the feedback received from the customers for continuous service improvements.

Title Registration

We have continued to pursue the proposal to implement title registration system on new land first (“new land first” proposal). The 8th and 9th Land Titles Ordinance (LTO) Review Committee meetings were held on 27 February and 28 May 2019 respectively to discuss and exchange views with members on the proposed amendments to the LTO for implementing the “new land first” proposal regarding issues including the definition of new land, cautions and title certificates.

Title Registration

Besides, a briefing to the Law Society of Hong Kong and a seminar for the Hong Kong Conveyancing and Property Law Association Limited on the proposal of implementation of e-lodgement under the LTO were conducted on 3 and 21 May 2019 respectively.

We will continue to engage the key stakeholders with a view to resolving the outstanding issues and finalizing the proposed amendments to the LTO.

Service Updates

e-Alert Service for Authorized Institutions

Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) Enhancements

Revision of Remark for Withheld Instruments shown on the Land Register

Sale of Street Index (51st edition) and New Territories Lot / Address Cross Reference Table (20th edition)

Performance Pledges 2019/20

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Title Registration