Measures to enhance trust in land administration systems and engender their proper use
Grover, Richard
Land administration systems (LAS) carry out a number of tasks, including land registration, maintaining cadastral records, granting spatial planning consents, real estate taxation, and valuation. These are not ends in themselves but means to an end. The argument put forward in this paper is that, whilst markets are not perfect, they are the most efficient means of allocating resources in most circumstances. LAS are needed because of the imperfections in the land and property markets. These require intervention and regulation, principally, but not exclusively by the state through LAS, though groups could also establish their own LAS. Two principal types of market imperfect in relation to the land and property markets are identified, informational inefficiency and operational or allocative inefficiency. Informational inefficiency means that market participants are not fully informed about market circumstances. Allocative inefficiency occurs because of externalities, so that one personns actions have repercussions for others that go beyond the impact of legitimate competition, common property resources access to which needs to be policed, monopolies that result from unique locations, and public goods like the protection of property rights that if provided for one have to be provided for all. The paper discusses some of the ways in which LAS can respond to inefficiencies in the land and property markets to make the markets more efficient. LAS can only perform the function of ensuring that fair, efficient and orderly land and property markets exist if there is good governance in land administration. This means that LAS must possess the capacity to regulate land and property markets and not be subject to corruption or capture by interested parties. The paper put forward some suggestions as to how good governance in LAS can be achieved.
Event: Conference on Land Governance in Support of the MDG's : Responding to New Challenges
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