 Central Registration and IRIS
The introduction of central registration marks the completion of a process to create a unified land registration service begun in the early 1980s. It was an essential precondition to the efficient introduction of title registration in the years ahead. The reorganization of the department and the introduction of IRIS to deliver electronic information services to the public and support our internal work gives us the ability to bring about steady improvements in service efficiency and quality.
Both IRIS and the new organization structure were put to severe test in the first months of operation. The first days saw a number of disruptions to internet services, requiring quick response from staff to allay customer concerns and ensure that demands for information services were met. Business volumes also increased dramatically. Search requests increased by 40% within a couple of weeks of the launch of IRIS. Registration volume has increased from a daily average of about 2,500 to nearly 3,500. The system and the staff have coped well with this. Customer satisfaction has picked up steadily. During the current year we will be introducing several batches of enhancements to the system to address particular issues raised by users after the launch and to help us achieve efficiency gains.
My objective is to ensure that over the medium term the additional manpower and costs for introducing title registration can be offset by increasing efficiency on the operation of deeds registration, allowing the transfer of resources to the new registration system.
Financial Performance
Revenue increased by nearly 20% compared with the previous year, rising to $435 million. This is the first year of increased revenue we have had since 1999/2000. During the year we obtained approval to reduce statutory fees for search and copying services to coincide with the introduction of central registration. Despite these fee reductions, which ranged from 16 to 36% of the old level, total income from these services was not reduced. In part this was due to increased demand due to activity in the property market. But, I have no doubt that the effect of reducing the cost of the service and making them more accessible to the public and smaller businesses through the IRIS internet service has helped as well to increase demand.
I am particularly pleased that despite the depreciation cost for IRIS coming onto our books at the end of the year, overall operation costs were kept close to the previous year's level. The expenditure on preparing to launch title registration will be substantial over the next couple of years. We will need to exercise care in control of expenditure in other areas by continuing to improve efficiency if we are to be sure of keeping costs to customers steady. We cannot bank on increasing revenue from market activity.
Looking Ahead
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