After the announcement of registering land sales by the Land Officer in May 1842, a Land and Road Inspector was appointed to do the work of Land Officer and register in his Office all sales and transfer of land. In 1844, the Land Office was established under the provisions of the Land Registration Ordinance. It was within the administration of the Surveyor General's Department until 16 June 1883 when it was transferred to the Supreme Court building in Queen's Road Central. The Registrar of the Supreme Court was also the Land Officer until 1 January 1902 when an independent Land Officer was appointed. Since 1926, the Land Officer was normally appointed as the Registrar of Marriages because the Marriage Registry and the Land Office were both in the Supreme Court building. On 1 April 1949, the Land Office merged with the other functions including the Companies Registry, the Trademarks Registry, the Office of the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy, the Official Trustee's Office, the Marriage Registry, to form the Registrar General's Department. The office, however, remained part of the Courts of Justice. In 1959 the Registrar General's Department moved to the West Wing of the newly completed Central Government Offices in Lower Albert Road and severed a link between the Land Office and the Supreme Court which had existed since 1883. The department moved into the Queensway Government Offices in 1986. In May 1993, upon the disestablishment of the Registrar General's Department, the Land Registry was formed to take up the land registration and owners corporation registration functions of the Land Office and became one of the first trading fund departments.
