In August 1993, the Land Registry was established as one of Hong Kong’s first Trading Fund Departments. The trading fund concept was an innovation in public financing designed to encourage greater focus on improving services and responding to customer needs. The Land Registrar serves as the General Manager of the Land Registry Trading Fund.

Under the trading fund model, the Land Registry remains a public agency but is responsible for its own finances and must meet its expenditure from the income derived from fees and charges for the services that it provides. The Trading Fund pays dividends to public funds but may otherwise retain profits to invest in service improvements. In particular, it has autonomy over capital investment projects that will support its services and has flexibility to redeploy staff to respond to the service needs of clients and customers. Since its establishment, the Trading Fund has invested $585 million in new IT systems. Registration fees have been kept constant since 1996. Search and copying fees were reduced substantially in 2005 when IRIS came into service.

The Trading Fund’s Annual Report and the certified financial statements by the Director of Audit must be tabled in the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region each year.