ECSSD is supporting property rights improvement projects in some 15 countries throughout the region. The projects demonstrate the Bank’s recognition that the ready availability of information about property (that is, cadastre and registration records) combined with the security of rights recorded in the system leads to increased agricultural productivity, increased value of land and other real estate, consolidation of fragmented rural lands, and general improvement of the efficiency of the rural and urban land markets. Projects in several ECA countries have demonstrated that efficient and effective property rights system are a contributing factor to economic growth and private sector development.  Armenia Title Registration Project. The objective of this project was to promote private sector development by implementing a transparent, parcel-based, easily accessible, and reliable registration system for and other immovable property. As a result of this investment, there are now 47 fully functioning Information and Registration Centers throughout the country that provide a systematic and uniform registration service. And 1.136 million property records have been entered into the central database. Through this new system, it only takes one day to process information requests from clients or register real estate transactions for most simple cases, and up to 3 days to process more complicated cases. In the past, these transactions could have taken months. Real estate market transactions registered have increased from some 30,000 in 2000 to 71,797 in 2003. Although though this active market remains small, with transactions on about 1.8% of all properties in 2003, if growth rates of the past three years are sustained, it is expected that the active market will exceed the 5% mark in 2008.
 Kygryz Republic Land Registration Project. The objective of the project is to support development of markets for land and real estate and the more intensive and effective use of land and real estate through the introduction of a reliable and well-functioning system for registration of rights in immovable property. Since the start of project implementation, 1.1 million properties were registered in the 50 registration offices established throughout the country. Transactions in 2004 represent an over 80% increase compared to the number in 1998. The time it takes to register a secondary transaction has been reduced to 3 days for an individual, and 4 days for an enterprise. The mortgage market activity is increasing at a rate greater than 10% per annum, and current lending is estimated at 2-3% of GDP.
 Slovenia Real Estate Registration Modernization Project. The main objective of this project is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of real estate administration systems in Slovenia. To date, 1.4 million buildings entered into the building cadastre - allowing for the registration of individual apartments. Transactions have been steadily rising over the past four years from some 28,000 in 2000 to more than 33,000 in 2004, an increase of 18% while the backlogs in the municipal registry offices have decreased. The percentage of real estate loans backed by mortgages has increased from 10% in 1998 to 51% in 2003.
Tajikistan Land Registration and Cadastre System for Sustainable Agriculture Project. Another recent World Bank investment aims to expand farm privatization through a repeater project to enable more rural people to become independent farmers and take management decisions in response to market forces. The project will also provide farmers with secure land use rights certificates distributed in a transparent and fair manner, and providing essential complementary support services. Macedonia Real Estate Cadastre and Registration Project. This project of €10.3 million is expected to begin in July 2005 for 4 years. The objective of the project, which is expected to begin implementation, is to build an efficient and effective real estate cadastre and registration system, contributing to the development of efficient land and real estate markets. By the end of the project in 2009 it is envisaged that: 100% of the territory of Macedonia will be covered by the real estate cadastre compared to 45% today; that 75% of land parcels and apartments will have fully registered rights in areas completed by the project compared to less than 60% today; and that 90% of transactions will be registered within one day compared to an average of 60 days today. This project, while focusing on the completion of the real estate cadastre and registration of real rights, includes a land policy component which will strengthen the government's capacity to formulate and develop the policies needed to ensure a well functioning property market. |
RSS