Hong Kong operates a deeds registration system under the Land Registration Ordinance (Cap. 128). The Land Registry, comprising the Urban Land Registry and eight New Territories Land Registries, is responsible for registering documents affecting land.

The Land Registration Ordinance provides that all land documents registered under Section 3 of the ordinance shall have priority according to their respective dates of registration. If a document is registered within one month of execution, priority shall relate to the date of execution of the document. Registration is essential to the protection of a land title, but does not guarantee it.

A land document is registered by delivering it to the appropriate land registry with a memorial, which contains the essential particulars of the document, and the prescribed fee. These particulars are then entered into a computerised land register for the relevant piece of land or property. The registered land document is scanned and stored as an electronic image on an optical disc.

Each land register provides a record of transactions affecting a property, starting from the grant of the relevant government lease. The registers, memorials and related land documents are available for search by members of the public at every search office on payment of a fee. Direct Access Service, an on-line computer search facility, is also available to subscribers, mainly solicitors and estate agents, enabling them to have direct access to the computerised land registers, to place orders for copies of land records and to obtain copies of imaged documents through their fax machines.

A Cross District Search service has also been introduced to enable customers to conduct a one-stop search for properties anywhere in the HKSAR at every search office. Apart from the annual release of the Hong Kong Street Index for urban areas on a CD-ROM, a New Territories Lot/Address Cross Reference Table has also been compiled and released on a CD-ROM in April. This enables users to identify the lot numbers, the available addresses and buildings of New Territories properties more easily. As a future enhancement, the Land Registry issued in September a tender for the 'Colour Imaging of Plans' to convert the existing and incoming plans into colour images direct to enhance efficiency and to improve the quality of the colouring services.

The Land Registry has developed a Strategic Change Plan to transform the department into a world-class registry. The plan envisages the amalgamation of the nine district registration offices into a central registration office to provide services without geographic restriction. Later it envisages the introduction of a simpler and more secure system of title registration. In May 1999, the Land Registry commissioned a consultant to recommend an Information Systems Strategy. The core strategy recommended the development of an Integrated Registration Information System (IRIS) to replace the existing fragmented computer systems. The new integrated computer system will be developed in two phases: the first phase will correspond to implementation of the Central Registration System; and the second phase is subject to the enactment of the Land Titles Bill. Preparation of the tender document for the first phase of the IRIS is under way.