Contacts: Monica Echeverria-Cota 202 473 1315
Lee Morrison 202-458-8741
To obtain project documents please contact the World Bank's Infoshop
at tel: 202-458-5454, fax: 202-522-1500, email: Enquiries
WASHINGTON, August 6, 1998 — The World Bank today approved a US$38 million loan to implement a program that aims to assure formal and sustainable rights to real property in predominantly poor settlements in the larger urban areas of Peru. In these regions, it is estimated that 70 percent of all urban properties are not formally inscribed in the registry, denying the owners of these propertiespoorer urban dwellersthe social and economic benefits of ownership.
The loan will finance the majority of the registration of 960,000 properties, of which 800,000 will be individually titled. The formalization process will cover an estimated four million people, around one-quarter of the total population, who typically live near the poverty line.
The Urban Property Rights Project will also improve the existing process of collecting and analyzing legal and spacial ownership information to support the scaling-up of the formalization process. Using a field campaign-based method of property formalization, the plan will formalize properties in eight urban areas, including the completion of the process in Lima and two other cities.
Property formalization is a crucial part of a broader formalization process in which excluded populations may gain access to greater security, public utilities, and services from the state. Furthermore, formalizing property rights will help secure the position of women, who will enjoy equality in property rights alongside men under the law.
"Properly issued and duly registered rights of ownership provide the security for owners to use property as collateral to raise finance, to invest in the betterment of their property, or to dispose of it as they wish," says Task Manager Elena Panaritis.
The US$38 million, LIBOR-based, single-currency loan has 17 years to maturity including a five-year grace period. |
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