Land registration effectiveness in social housing in South Africa : a western Cape case study
Barry, Michael & Lani Roux
The Project97 (pseudonym) case provides insights into how and why landholders choose to register or not register transactions after first registration. The study tests and develops components of a theoretical framework that the authors developed. Post-apartheid, South Africa has constructed an estimated 3 million houses as part of government subsidised social housing programmes. The majority are registered in ownership. There are indications that a significant number have been traded off-register, which can adversely affect the parties to the transaction, the registration system, land administration in general, and the formal land market. There are suggestions of a small number of off-register transactions in Project97, but these could not be authenticated. In contrast to some housing projects, on the whole, the registration system works in this housing project. There are policies in place which enable people to register and which address problems encountered in other housing projects in South Africa. Landholders are knowledgeable about the different strategies available to them in the event of a problem, they consider their title deed a very important document, in general they trust the land administration institutions and the agents involved in administration, and the institutions have delivered in this project.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2013
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