Hong Kong Cadastral Survey System: A comparison and its implementation
Tang Hong-Wai Conrad, Cheng Nga-Fong Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hung Hom, Hksar. Email: Lstang@polyu.edu.hk, 00900630R@polyu.edu.hk Tel: (852) 27665963, (852) 27665974. Fax: (852) 23302994 Introduction The present deeds registration in Hong Kong has been operating under Land Registration Ordinance (Cap. 128). Deeds and other relevant documents are registered in a form of land register in Land Registry. However, according to the Ordinance, approximate location of the said land parcel or property is only briefly described in the deed or depicted onto the lot identification plan. Recently, the Land Registry proposes the Land Titles Bill by the replacement of current deeds registration system. Despite such proposal has no intention to deal with the long neglected land rights: boundary extent. By definition, a complete cadastral survey system covers "an interactive multitude of land administration sub-systems including adjudication, boundary definition and demarcation, surveying, registration, dispute resolution and information management" [Barry, 1999]. It serves to provide easy access to land-related information, to support certainty of ownership and rights to land, to give legal protection for land tenure, and to facilitate the land conveyance. As much attention for the system is primarily placed on the issues of boundary survey, land registration and legislation in the paper, others are beyond the scope. As such, two typical examples of cadastral survey systems applied in South Africa and Singapore are illustrated and compared with those in Hong Kong. These three regions are selected as comparisons due to their past commonwealth backgrounds. They came under British administration at the outset of 1800s with an adoption of deeds registration system. The Cadastral Survey System among three Regions - Overview
The history of the Republic of South Africa is long and complex, but well documented. As establishment of South Africa's first democratic government experiences a land reform programme in 1994, the new government had to take reasonable legislative measures for citizens to contend the extremely unequal land distribution, and to gain access to land on an equitable basis. The deed registration is conducted by the Department of Land Affairs through its nine Deeds Offices under the supervision of the Chief Registrar of Deeds. An integral part of the system, and a major source of information for land development initiatives, is a detailed recording of the historical information in respect of all registered properties. Besides, all registration of the definition of land rights is essential for a deed to be legally recognized, which falls under the umbrella of Deeds Registries Act No. 37 of 1937. The approved diagram attached for registration showing the exact location of the land is supported and approved by the Surveyor General Office (SGO). "Section 18 of Deeds Registries Act shows the ownership of land alienated … by the State may be either by deed of grant of by deed of transfer issued or executed, the deed shall contain a reference to the title deed by which the State held the land and to the title deed to which the diagram of the land is annexed… If any piece of unalienated State land has been surveyed and is represented on a diagram the registrar concerned shall, upon written application by the Minister of Public Works, enter particulars of the land in the appropriate registers with the diagram, a certificate of registered State title prepared by a conveyancer." The SGO of Department of Land Affairs is a national government to carry out the survey and conveyancing services. Storage, collection and dissemination of cadastral data can be incorporated as an integrated information infrastructure that supports ongoing system. The data serves as the base map for other authorities' land administration system. Also, the Land Survey Act No. 8 of 1997 as well as its Survey Regulations namely Manual of Procedures in respect of survey submitted under Land Survey Act, do much to streamline the survey-related duties of both land surveyors in private practice and government sectors. It imposes control over how cadastral survey and its records should be performed and prepared. "Section 14 to 16 of Land Survey Act give no general plan or diagram of any piece of land shall be accepted in any deeds registry… unless general plan or diagram has been approved by the Surveyors-General. General plans or diagrams signed by land surveyor shall be approved in Surveyor-General and registered in the deeds registry. Section 18 shows any land surveyor carrying out a survey of any land to which a title deed has been issued but of which a diagram has not previously been registered, shall lodge with the Surveyor-General for examination and filing of record in the Surveyor-General's Office the prescribed diagram and survey records…" Since the British colonial era, Singapore has adopted common law. Singapore Land Authority (SLA) was inaugurated as a statutory board under the Ministry of Law in 2001, aimed to optimize land resources for the economic and social development of Singapore. The SLA is a merger of the former Land Office, Land Systems Support Unit, Singapore Land Registry (SLR) and Survey Department (SVY). SLR is responsible for maintaining a sound legal registration of land management and public search system of land and strata titles. Strata titles have been registered in accordance with Land Titles (Strata) Act (Cap. 158) since 1968. Starting from 1993, land registration has intended to progressively convert a system of deeds into titles under the provisions of Land Titles Act (Cap. 157). Presently, there is two-land registration systems co-existed. Land under Registration of Deeds Act (Cap. 269) is referred to common law or deeds land, whereas land governed by Land Titles Act is known as titles land. Moreover, SVY has approximately 130,000 lot parcels identified with specified boundaries since 1999. It has several series of revision sheets with legal status such as First Series Sheets, Second series sheets and Resurvey Sheets. Of the government services related to properties, Integrated Land Information System (INLIS) is a service widely used and definitively welcomed by people in the real estate industry as it offers information on properties. Boundary defined in Singapore is secured by Boundaries and Survey Maps Act (Cap. 25) of 1998 enacted since 1884 to provide for the land demarcation, establishment and preservation of boundary marks, and survey map publication. The recent amendment on this Act provides a legal framework for setting up a coordinated cadastre. Another act in Singapore is Land Surveyors Act (Cap. 156) of 1991, which regulates the requirement and specification to carry out land boundary surveys. It is mandatory for registered surveyors to deposit survey documents to the Department. "Boundaries and Survey Maps Act (Cap. 25): It defines the duties and powers of the Chief Surveyor under Section 5 and 6 respectively. It provides for the legality of electronic maps in Section 6.3. This is to cater for the future process of electronic retrieval and submission of survey plans. Section 7 provides for the establishment and maintenance of the coordinated cadastre by the Chief Surveyor. It includes the conversion of the current coordinates to the new system according to designated survey areas." Hundred and fifty years ago, Hong Kong has long adopted a general boundary with fairly low survey accuracy. The first and the only one comprehensive boundary survey - Demarcation District (DD) Survey for the purpose of tax assessment was carried out in the New Territories (NT) around 1905. Nevertheless, existing law and initial survey is not to be progressively changed towards nowadays standard. DD Sheet attached to the Block Government Lease (BGL) until now is still treated as one of the legal documents for correlating the boundary of land parcels in the NT. The survey provided evidences as to the most probable position of the boundary. Upon the dis-establishment of the Registrar General's Department, Land Registry (LR) has formed as the first trading fund department, which currently governs by Land Registration Ordinance. It facilitates land registration of deeds and search services of conveyancing in Hong Kong. Definition of newly granted lots boundary in Hong Kong is performed by the Survey and Mapping Office (SMO) of Lands Department. SMO is responsible for the survey of land allocation, maintenance of land records, maintenance of geodetic control network, survey revision, advises on land boundary matters and sales of geo-spatial products. The Computerized Land Information System (CLIS) was established to convert the 1:1,000 paper maps into digital base information. There are considerable and useful mapping data, which vary in quality and availability. There are about 3,000 1:1,000 basic survey sheets with topographic features, which provide the updated information frequently. Hong Kong dues with boundary matters under common law tradition; land boundary is a right recorded in a lease and land boundary rights are subjected to various overriding interests, e.g. adverse possession rights, estoppels, etc. Ordinances of institutions in Hong Kong do contain land boundary description [Tang, 2001, p.45]. The usual boundary description is by ways of registered plan. Some of the land administration ordinances do contain clauses of boundary survey, but they are seldom used by the government [Tang, 2001, p.46]. There is no legislation enforceable to govern the boundary survey, except the Land Survey Ordinance (LSO, Cap. 473) only deals with subdivision survey since 1996. Its aim is to control the standards of land boundary surveys for land subdivision. Under this, instruments effecting the division of land parcels delivered to the LR for registration must be accompanied by land boundary plans prepared and certified by Authorized Land Surveyors (ALSs). Table.1 illustrates a summary of cadastral survey systems among three regions. For more details, Table 2 shows the chronological sequences of cadastral histories for reference (See page 15).
Table.1 Summary of Cadastral Survey System among three region
Before going ahead the implementation, the following analysis is described the similarities and differences among three systems in terms of survey services, registration services, legislative measures and government roles.
Survey services indicate a long-term investment. Three regions have well-developed and comprehensive geodetic control networks as a basis for their system developments. They have initiated to modernize their former survey frameworks with advanced GPS technology quickly at a minimal cost compared with the traditional techniques, so as to enjoy tremendous benefits - eliminate inconsistency in survey data and improve their survey accuracy. Whilst South Africa has a negative system of land registration, the quality of cadastral surveying is sufficiently well organized, accurate, for a positive system of registration. Coordinates uniquely identified on the geodetic grid are mandatory for the beacons of any boundary surveys. Besides, South Africa has been implementing a coordinated cadastre over fifty years. Today, all modern surveys have had to be based on the South Africa geodetic control network - Cape Datum with reference to the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84), which contributes to uniform standards of accuracy. This integrated system consists of approximately 52,000 control points distributed throughout the territory. Cadastral surveys in Singapore prior to 1925 were carried out by very crude instrumentation considered of lesser accuracy compared to present system. To support the sustainable development, cadastral survey system should have a means of improving so as to cope with changing social and economic needs. Singapore is a good example that her system matches the progress of society, by introducing a new survey reference system and making legislative changes to accommodate a complete and secure cadastre. With the research on providing better control and boundary definition (Table 2), the SVY Department collaborated with the Nanyang Technological University and the University of New South Wales undertook an Integrated Survey Network (ISN) to revamp a local SVY95 geodetic network in WGS84 datum in 1997. Goh [2000] concludes this network provides the advantages of implementing all survey records to legal coordinated cadastre, as to describe the land titles by coordinates in accordance with the Boundaries and Survey Maps Act, the Land Surveyor Act and its rules.
Table.2 A three-stage ISN project in Singapore
Boundary survey in Hong Kong provides position fixing and security to the registration of land parcels. A good control network has been established and maintained as a backbone to support the industry by the Geodetic Section. The section is going to implement its network into 2000 GPS Network covering the whole territory. This improvement of survey technology makes the observation more reliable and accurate as compared with the plane-tabling methods used early in NT survey. Specific guidelines or instructions on the GPS application are under investigation and likely to be implemented into the Ordinance and its regulations. Information technology is a cornerstone of survey services to provide a continuous evolution of land information services to the concerned parties. Both Singapore and Hong Kong obtained sound land information systems developed in 1990s. These systems are to explore new technologies and standards to ensure spatial data infrastructures which enable the public and private sectors to encourage their effective and strategic use for the continuous planning, development and growth of cities. Singapore Land Data Hub consisting of INLIS, Land Information Network Infrastructure and Land Base Information, contributes a comprehensive accurate digitized land data. Boundaries shown on INLIS are meant to be final and conclusive. In the past, land boundary records were internal office records kept and used solely by the government. With the success of Hub, the data are recently used by about 30 government departments, 50 private agencies and even the general public . Besides, attention is particularly paid to the Hong Kong government's focus on Cadastral Information System (CIS) development in 1989 to transform the 1:1,000 paper land boundary records into digital base information. CIS maintains the land boundary record database and facilitates the preparation of cadastral plans. They are considerable and useful mapping data which vary in quality and availability. With increasing participation of private survey firms, the records had gradually been opened to the society. So far, 4 government departments have been used a complete set of digital map data to set up their own geographical information systems. However, there is no government department responsible for gathering different land information and managing them in one unique system. Very often the information kept in different offices are not exchangeable. Survey regulations and specification governing to carry out boundary surveys are very similar among three regions. Survey reports together with attached documents shall be prepared properly. The survey plans must be certified by qualified land surveyors that the survey had been carried in compliance with the prescribed COP. In conducting, directing or supervising every boundary survey, the surveyor should bear in mind the responsibilities and duty of care towards the society, the profession and the clients, and land owners, and the liability which may arise as a result of any wrongful survey. Three regions have operated land registration systems with the same aim of protection of property owners and proper security of innumerable transactions. They constantly review their work processes and procedures to give better quality services to general public. Although South Africa and Hong Kong have adopted the deeds registration, the intention of registration in South Africa (deeds) is similar to that in Singapore (titles). Deeds registration in South Africa is regarded not only by South African, but also by foreign jurists as an accurate and reliable deeds system [Barry, 1995; Fourie, 1994; Lester & Teversham, 1995; Radloff, 1996] with security as good as the titles. Simpson [1976] has classified it as titles because there is a reliable accurate record with the support of a high level of boundary survey. Thus, quality of the documentation and processes have well developed and safeguarded. It is a de facto guarantee of title, which equals the 'certificate of title' in Torrens system. Dale [1976, p.44] expressed that "The premium payable to the insurance company will depend upon the reliability of the company's records. The accuracy of survey needed will depend on the history of the parcel and a judgement of what risks are acceptable." Nevertheless, the deeds system essentially served the needs of the minority white population. Singapore Land Registry (SLR) provides an efficient, transparent, accurate and responsive system of land registration in a land scarce country. SLR is also close to replacing the current dual registration system, with a simpler and more cost-effective one by title conversion project to have done in phases by survey districts. Hitherto, Common law land is remained about 1.7% (or 3,686 lots) of the total number of land lots. In terms of Land Titles Act, the processes of examination and registration, its control and monitoring of standards, and its methods of record preservation, serve to provide security of title for law, institutions and general public. Such conversion, ultimately superseded by a fully computerized title registration system, is a long-term intention. The Land Registration Ordinance in Hong Kong, as Nield [1991] said, "is more accurately called 'Document Registration' Ordinance for it establishes a simple, traceable and well-managed system of registration of documents affecting land". Also, Hong Kong have intended to follow other leading jurisdictions for replacing the existing deeds system with titles to support a recovering land markets - the formation of proposed Land Titles Bill. However, the legal settings of both systems never cater the untouched boundary aspect of registered land parcels. With reference to Section 17 of the Bill, the land boundary plan attached to the deed/title shows an approximate location in every land transaction. "Section 17 (Land Titles Bill) Boundaries of the Bill These long-hauled boundary uncertainties have accelerated so many boundary problems occurred like redevelopment plans withheld for boundary conflict reasons, mortgages granted to land of uncertain boundaries, etc. Hence, the development of registration system is stagnated in the area of providing secure boundary protection, comprehensive cadastral database and other land rights improvements. The Land Registry recently starts investigation on boundary extent in the proposed Bill. South Africa and Singapore governments pass various acts and land codes to regulate cadastral surveying, whereas Hong Kong does not have any legislation governing boundary surveys except LSO. One similarity as highlighted in terms of Land Survey Act in South Africa, Land Surveyors Act in Singapore and LSO in Hong Kong, boundary surveys have to be carried out under the supervision of a professional land surveyor. It also governs the professional roles among various institutes of land surveyors. Indeed the great advantage of South African cadastral survey system is that Land Survey Act unambiguously identifies the position on ground and the extent of rights of every land parcel, in order to minimize the zone of uncertainty in land boundaries. Besides, Deeds Registries Act in effect makes the transfer of any right in land compulsory and was modeled after Roman-Dutch law, introduced in colonial times when any transfer of land was required to take place before a judge, and reliable and accessible registers were kept to record all transactions. Also, registration is impermissible without a diagram approved by the Surveyor General, so as to ensure the record is generally accurate and few challenges to the deed's correctness [Radloff, 1996]. The entire system is marked by a high degree of reliability and security. Boundaries and Survey Maps Act of Singapore was introduced to pave the way for legislative and administrative changes to survey practice. It is certainly a brilliant display of constant government policy and system improvement. The conversion of the current coordinates to the new system caters for the future process of electronic retrieval and submission of survey plans. In terms of Land Surveyors Act on acceptance of the survey plans, Chief Surveyor updates the cadastral database and produces the cadastral maps, which under Section 13 of the Boundaries and Survey Maps Act shall be conclusive evidences in all courts of the boundaries of the land. Specifications and procedures of a boundary survey are set out in the Land Surveyors (Conduct of Cadastral Surveys) Rules made under the Land Surveyors Act, like general field practice, survey and marking of boundaries, required precision, plan specification, etc. Although Hong Kong maintains an attainable accurate standard of surveyed boundary, there is no legislation directly enforceable to govern the boundary survey except LSO only deals with subdivision survey. LSO aims to build up a reliable land record by controlling the subdivision survey standard. For other transactions falling outside LSO including the boundary re-establishment of old scheduled lots, relevant documents and exact boundaries of such lots are still left uncertain. Very often, legal land boundary plans as contemporarily registered are imprecisely surveyed and insufficient for present land use. In this circumstance, the boundary determination is subject to the best available evidence. Unfortunately, the legislative measures for further action are not materialized. The government does minimal effort in examining and revising the ordinances towards surveying. The straightforward way solution is to amend the confused land boundary record with legal effect. That is why so many countries like Singapore and South Africa have improved the boundary situation and enacted corresponding boundary and survey laws. It is recognized government should have a proper institutionalized system of staff development. There must be a systematic process for reviewing human resources practices and a structured approach to staff development. As Singapore had re-organized Survey Department (SVY) since 1995, Hong Kong has started to follow its pace towards privatization. Post 1972, SVY Department started inspecting the work submitted by private sectors and Statutory Boards. It has achieved ISO9002 standard on 'the chain of inspection of cadastral survey' since 1999. The role changes to undertake the processing of survey records, which includes the examination, approval and safekeeping of all survey records relating to all survey plans and sectional plans for registration purposes. After approval, the survey records deposited in the Department become the property of the Government. Land boundary surveys should be conducted by the Chief Surveyor or registered surveyors in accordance with the provisions of the Land Surveyors Act and the Directive of Survey Practices [2001]. Besides, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) had merged into a Statutory Board since 2001. Given the Singapore's limited land resources and the need of a steady population growth, SLA puts in place a flexible framework that allows for a more proactive, innovative, and nimble response to the constantly evolving economic and social landscape of Singapore through a one-stop centre [Medies, 2001]. It provides authoritative, comprehensive and easily accessible land information and land management system. This will enhance the ability to optimize land use, ensure appropriate returns on the land, and deliver integrated land services to customers. As mentioned before, the government acts as a survey service coordinator to contract out survey services, in order to reduce the actual costs and to accelerate the pace of projects. As referred to Table 3, nearly 60% to 70% of the surveys were carried out by private sectors. Private sectors, to meet competition and to offer a quality assured product to clients, have carried out the work at a lower price driven by market mechanism. Thus, the average cost of a typical lot is low compared with other countries, i.e. about S$1,000.
Table. 3 Outstanding Survey of Land Lots undertaken by Private Registered Surveyors (PRS) and Surveyors from Statutory Boards from Year 1991-1999.
To maintain boundary securely, it is not an easy task in Hong Kong. Boundary plans of recent land grant is controlled and coordinate-fixed to meet the survey accuracy. However, the title plans and documents pertaining to the New Territories' lots over the years are of unsatisfactory standards. In the absence of concluding registration, it may be necessary to search through previous survey information for determining the most probable lot boundary. Statistics as referenced to the Land Registry homepage show that, "Over the past five years, the LR has had to provide 3.5 million copies or certified copies of old documents, mostly related to property transactions. This has cost customers over HK$400 million. The costs to legal firm of labour for scrutinizing the title are even more significant for the vendors and purchasers." Lots of professional staff in government are involved into the prevailing expensive system, so as to reduce the risks of mistakes in land transactions. The average cost spent for a typical land parcel subdivision in Hong Kong was estimated about HK$30,000 [FIG, 1997], is much more than that in Singapore. SMO is engaged in the proposal of corporation, like contracting out map revision activities and subsequent quality guarantee by quality management. Surveyor General Offices of South Africa play an important role in ensuring such security of title since they examine and approve all boundary surveys for the registration of ownership of property and real rights in land. Surveyed boundaries together with its diagrams lodged by the surveyors are examined and approved. There is a steady 10% increase every year for diagram submission extracted from their Yearbook. Therefore, litigation with respect to property boundaries is rare, and when disputes do arise, instruments in the Act provide agreement, procedures and arbitration rules for professional surveyors. Compared with land tenure policies adopted in Hong Kong and Singapore, South Africa is necessary for stabilizing the land tenure security. As the establishment of South Africa's first democratic government experienced a decisive turn in their history in 1994, it has been undergoing a substantial social, political and economic transformation. The new government had to adopt a national land reform programme for the citizens to contend the unequal land distribution, and to gain access to land on an equitable basis. The reform is likely to be implemented more rapidly and in more cost-effective way on the legal certainty associated with each land parcel. Since the cost of registration and the accessibility to the registration are lengthy and expensive to such the system being used (physical distance to Deeds Office, time taken to effect a transfer, etc.), the high cost of securing land ownership in current system is beyond the means of the majority of the poor South Africa's population [Barry, 1995]. As reviewed by Pienaar [1999], evolution of South African cadastral systems in general too much focused on the question of providing cadastral information systemically for large tracts of land. Land tenure is sometimes legally insecure as Klaus [1998] said because of past racially discriminatory laws or practices (e.g. black spot removal policy). Most Africans owing to previous land administration policies do not have registered ownership of their own land, even if they have held and occupied it before the white arrivals. Approximately 17 million hectares of whole territory, 13% of land ownership is still conflicted over communal tribal areas. In most cases, the general public has little attention drawn in the legal and specific boundaries of land parcels. Their concern is a system that clearly establishes who is entitled to that land, and what his or her rights are. Consequently, the unclear legal status of the low value land and the land administration processes inhibit development and investment in the land. The traditional system is however unable to provide appropriate land security, it is initially necessary to solve conflicts and competing interests, and to provide transparency and participation in decision-making relating to land use. In the support of sustainable development and land management nowadays, there is an urgent need to identify and implement an appropriate land registration system with a specified boundary definition, so as to improve our land boundary security and to maintain a high level of land boundary system in Hong Kong. To really improve both present and proposed registration situations, the ideal solution would upgrade the proposed Bill to cover properly surveyed and accurate plan accompanied with registration, which is fundamental to the success of the improvement. Also, extending the LSO to cover all land boundary surveys is absolutely essential because the accomplishment of the above goals really depends on the availability of a correct, accurate and comprehensive land boundary record.
It is obvious that any title registration system, whereby the Government warrants or guarantees the boundary extent, must be based upon a detailed and accurate plan that is similar to a system of guaranteed boundaries [Willoughby, 1995]. However, the Hong Kong existing system together with its proposed Bill does not denote specified lot boundaries. On Section 17(1) of the Bill to implement as specified boundaries, our suggestion proposes that every transaction of land parcels shall contain a properly surveyed Land Boundary Plan (LBP) attached as an important document for registration. Being prepared LBPs with specified boundaries by professional land surveyors, the implemented Bill would make land transfer more certain, secure and fair. In the long run, a more comprehensive and effective land titles registration system could be built up for the benefit of the whole community. There is no provision for the deposition of plans of all land boundary surveys such as boundary rectification and boundary re-definition, the provision of plan deposition with SMO only covers subdivision. As our suggestion with Chan [2001], SMO shall be responsible for maintaining LBPs submitted by ALSs or Registered Professional Surveyors (RPSs) for recording all kinds of boundary surveys. All certified LBPs as inspected and approved by SMO shall be deposited both in LR and SMO to all transactions of land, whether they are whole lots or sections of lots, for registration and maintenance of land boundary records. A prescribed charge shall be made on the submission. On the Section 30(4) of the LSO, it is difficult for ALSs to comply within the 7-day rule to deposit the certified LBP and Survey Record Plan (SRP) kept in both LR and SMO for inspection and approval. Besides, it is absolutely not a compulsory procedure to deliver a duplicate of LBP registered with the LR. There are examples of inconsistency LBPs being kept by LR and SMO (about 3% of non-duplicate plan submitted) since any amended plans might not be re-registered, or even missing LBP/SRP records of subdivision survey registered in LR [Chan, 2001]. Thence, as our suggestion, we proposes all LBPs certified and signed by ALS, accompanying any instrument delivered into the LR for registration under the Land Registration Ordinance shall be inspected and approved by the SMO prior to its registration with the LR, which show the boundaries and geographical locations of immovable properties as well as other physical features on ground. When any uncertainty or dispute arises as to the position of any boundary of the affected land and the parties to the dispute cannot agree concerning such boundary, SMO shall instruct them to present the dispute on behalf of ALS to the competent court. A Land Boundary Survey Tribunal is to be established to mitigate boundary problems as and when necessary, e.g. in the case of an ALS's boundary determination being disputed. After the judgement made by the court, all final judgement and relevant documents shall be made and delivered to the Registrar of Lands for compilation and registration. Rectification for required land boundaries between the government and registered owner is necessary to rectify errors in the land registers which are immaterial. It can be done when appropriate documentation or evidence is presented to show that what is included in the register is incorrect. Land Registrar shall request the decision from SMO to review the said case being made. If rectification found, SMO may approve a revised LBP in accordance with a resurvey of that land submitted by private land surveyors. Upon approving the new plan, SMO shall endorse the prevailing plan as having been replaced by the new plan, and shall inform the Registrar to replace the relevant title in parallel. Many countries may have different appropriate designs for the cadastral survey systems. Some of them may adopt a simple, flexible, easily accessible and low cost system, whereas others use a complex, more rigid and expensive system. This article gives a comparative review of cadastral survey systems practiced in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa. To stop further deteriorating of the land boundary record with its security, Singapore and South Africa can be good examples learned from Hong Kong, to provide a better legal environment in dealing with the century long inaccurate boundary situation. The environment comprises a set of well-defined ordinances - Land Titles Act, Boundaries Act, Land Surveyors Act and its regulation. In this way all cadastral survey activities will be accurately defined. These are vital components to protect land rights and boundary security adequately to landowners, in order to support effective land market for sustainable economic development. Hong Kong can move towards a complete cadastral survey system with the components of adjudication, surveying, registration, dispute resolution and information management. Acknowledgement The work described in the article is supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HKSAR (Project No. PolyU G-W051).
Table.2 A Chronological Sequence of Cadastral Histories among three regions.
References
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