12.5.2 Land Titling Practices

UPA Package 2, Module 5

LAND TITLING PRACTICES

22.5.2 Land Titling Practices

What Is Land Titling?

Land titling is the generic term used to describe programs implemented by the State to enable individuals and the State to efficiently trade in rights in land and property

32.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Why Title Rights in Land?

Developing Countries – A Simple Economic Model

• In most countries real estate constitutes between 50% and 75% of national wealth.

• The lack of a formalised system to register rights in land significantly inhibits economic activity.

• Without a formal land registration system an informal land market develops.

• An informal land market operates in an environment of considerable uncertainty, discourages long term investment and can lead to resource degradation and social unrest.

42.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Why Title Rights in Land?

Land Titling may be undertaken for a number of

reasons:

• Economic reform

• Social equity/reform

• Land consolidation

• Allocation of public land

52.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Land Titling Activity Worldwide

Status of Land Titling and Administration Projects

• Interest in land titling has grown markedly over the

past decade.

• The World Bank currently has projects (at various

stages) in over 30 countries.

• The Asian Development Bank has projects in 2

countries.

• Other agencies have been active, including the

FAO, EBRD, EEC, UNDP.

62.5.2 Land Titling Practices

What Does a Land Titling Project Look Like?

Characteristics of Typical Projects

• Long term

• Operates in a complex institutional setting

• High level government contact

• High potential fiscal/social impact

• Generates linkages to all sectors (public, private

and academia)

72.5.2 Land Titling Practices

What Does a Land Titling Project Look Like?

PLUS

• Institutional Re Engineering

• High Rate Development

• Financial Management

• Community Relations And Services

82.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Typical Project Components

• Project management

• Policy formulation

• Land law

• Land title issuance

• Land registration

• Survey and Mapping

• Land records management

• Land and property valuation and taxation

• Land information systems

• Education and training

What Does a Land Titling Project Look Like?

92.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Benefits of Land Titling

• Secure land tenure

• Reduction in land disputes

• More efficient land markets

• Increased land values

• Broadened tax base

• Information to support better resource allocation and management

• More equitable basis for compensation

102.5.2 Land Titling Practices

The Economic Benefits of Land Titling

• Land titling or registration will increase productivity through increasing factor mobility (development of efficient land markets).

• Land titling will increase access to institutional credit.

• Land titling will encourage on-farm investments.

• Land titling will increase government revenue.

112.5.2 Land Titling Practices

The Social Benefits of Land Titling

• Increased security

• Increased land prices

• Reduced land disputes/social tension

122.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Land Titling Practices in Dveloping Countries

Currently the World Bank is supporting at least 13 implemented land titling and registration projects with a total loan value of about US$550 million.

132.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Thailand Land Titling Program (TLTP)

The TLTP is a 20 year program begun by the Royal Thai Government (RTG) in late 1984. The TLTP was planned in four phases.

TLTP I (1984-1990), TLTP II (1990-1994) and TLTP III (1995-1999), and TLTP IV (2000-2004). Foregoing three phases have all been funded by RTG counterpart funding, loans from the World Bank and grant assistance from AusAID. The project will enter its thirteenth year on 1 October 1996 and thus has a significant track record.

142.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Thailand Land Titling Program (TLTP)

Objectives

• the acceleration of the issuance of title deeds to eligible land holders;

• the improvement of land administration systems, both in Bangkok and in the provinces;

• the production of cadastral mapping in both urban and rural areas;

• the improvement in the efficiency of the Central Valuation Authority in the valuation of land and buildings

152.5.2 Land Titling Practices

TLTP in Perspective

• Prepared in 1982/3, to alleviate rural poverty

• planned as a 20 year project to complete land titling throughout Thailand

• commenced in 1984, in 9 provinces

• initial emphasis in technical areas

• emphasis has shifted to broad institutional issues – strategic planning, IT strategy, HRD, service delivery

162.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Factors That Have Contributed to Success in Thailand

• Twenty years prior investment by the World Bank in agriculture in Thailand

• Project is solely concerned with land titling

• Project has only one implementing agency

• The Department of Lands was well established

• Thailand has a long history of land titling, having introduced a title system in 1901

172.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Factors That Have Contributed to Success in Thailand

• Project activities are predominantly in the settled lowlands and in areas of little of not traditional land tenure

• The administrative procedures of the Department are very responsive to public demand

• Strong and sustained commitment

182.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Peru Urban Property Rights

Most of Lima's massive expansion has been driven by poor migrant families from the countryside who have built their homes on the city's dusty peryphery

192.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Without legal property titles, children had to stay home from school while parents were at work so it would not be seized by another homeless group.

Peru Urban Property Rights

202.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Peru Urban Property Rights

Without proof of ownership, homeowners are unable to get credit from banks for home repairs such as fixing leaking roofs or installing pipes For running water. They have very little connection with the state, and no one enforces their rights as citizens.

212.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Registering Property is Key to Opportunity

In 1998, a $38 million World Bank Loan was approved to support legal registration of 960,000 urban properties in Peru. Combined with $24 million from the Government of Peru, the project has already outperformed its original plan with over 1.3 million homeowners having registered their properties. And demand is growing.

222.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Peru Urban Property Rights Project

The principal objective of this project is to create a

system assuring formal and sustainable rights to real property in selected, predominantly poor, settlements in larger urban areas. The project supports a national program for formalizing urban property rights (issuing and registering titles). Through legal and institutional improvements, training, and the development of long-term strategies, it also strengthens the organizations responsible for this program.

232.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Project managers worked with street actors to devise a life-size board game to show residents how the legalization process works.

Peru Urban Property Rights Project

242.5.2 Land Titling Practices

An innovative communications effort that includes comics and video has been key to the project's success, but staff finds that word of mouth is just as effective: "The beneficiaries themselves are the project's biggest supporters."

Peru Urban Property Rights Project

252.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Peru Urban Property Rights Project

262.5.2 Land Titling Practices

Nicomedes Mejía and his wife Adela Espinoza had lived in the Tacalá urban settlement outside Lima for more than 15 years before obtaining the title to their house with the help of the project. With their ownership secured, they used home equity to guarantee a mortgage their son Luis, a schoolteacher, took out to build a school in the neighborhood.

Peru Urban Property Rights Project

272.5.2 Land Titling Practices

The Benefits of the Project

A socio-economic study has shown that:

  Land titling has lead to an increased level of employment in households – an average of 45 hours per week; Land titling is associated with a significant decline in the proportion of households who use their residence as a source of economic activity Land titles appear to reduce the household demand for child labour in a majority of households