Our company Schmidt & Schmidt provides Extracts from the Real Estate Register of Hong Kong with translation and Apostille.

Data on real estate in Hong Kong is stored in the Land Register which comprises three divisions.

Divisions of the Land Register:

• Registration of acts and departmental services
• Financial services
• Legal services

Main duties of the Land Register

• registration of rights to real estate
• organization of data search and provision of document copies

The register is maintained in electronic form. It is public, but access to data contained in it is possible after payment of relevant duties.

Information contained in the register:

• Updated real estate data
• Background on real estate

Contents of the extract:

Of real estate:

• Full address
• Area
• Lease (for example, start date)
• Rental fee per year

Of owners:

• Names of current owners
• Names of previous owners
• Total number of owners and their shares
• Date of registration
• Manager
• Dates of transactions
• Other information submitted in the register

Both an extract and copies of documents may be obtained from the register.

According to the law on personal data protection, search by owner name is impossible by third-parties. Search by owner name is available only to the owner himself.

Extracts from the Register may be obtained either in electronic or in a paper form with apostille.

Extract from the Land Register of Hong Kong may be used for:

• confirmation of title to real estate
• receipt of information about the real estate item
• debt collection
• analysis of prices for real estate
• other commercial and analytical purposes

*some data may be unavailable for certain items, or may be provided for a fee.

Receipt of documents in electronic form if necessary base information is available is normally carried out for one working day. Approximately 2 weeks are required to obtain documents with apostille.

Extracts from the Real Estate Register are provided subject to the laws of the PRC and Hong Kong and to the Law on personal data protection.

Moreover, you can order certified translation of your documents into any foreign language.

The requests shall be processed within one business day. Courier delivery of the apostilled extract shall be paid additionally according to the courier tariff rates.

Apostilled extracts from Hong Kong

Hong Kong joined the Hague Convention on simplified legalization of documents on April 25, 1965. On July 1, 1997 the Convention came into force.
Thus, documents issued in Hong Kong are subject to legalization based on the apostilling procedure, after certified translation such documents acquire full legal force on the territory of all other Hague Convention Member States.

As a rule of thumb, apostillation of extracts takes about two weeks.