OFFPLAN NEWS

(10.08.2007 )
Property in Bosnia and Herzegovina World Bank Supports Land Registration Reform

WASHINGTON, April 28, 2006 - The World Bank yesterday approved a US$15 million Land Registration Project for Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH). This project, prepared in close cooperation with BiH authorities and local and international experts, will support needed cadastre and land registration reform in the country. This project has been prepared in close coordination with other donor partners and countries, including the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), as well as the German government, which has been supporting land registration in BiH since 2000.

 “These reforms will facilitate the orderly development of transparent land markets through the registration of real estate rights and policies that enable secure and efficient transactions,” said Dirk Reinermann, the World Bank Country Manager in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “In other   words, this project will help to clear up the land registration title system so that people in both urban and rural areas can develop their land or utilize it for investment with security.”

 Systems for the registration of property rights in BiH have been in disarray since World War II when many of the records and documents relating to property were destroyed. The taxes imposed during the socialist period discouraged people from registering changes in ownership, and even where the Land Books were maintained, they were often not up to date. The situation worsened during the 1992-1995 war when more records were lost and people were displaced, sometimes permanently, and the legal records often no longer matched the occupation of the land.

 In addition, throughout these years, illegal construction and use of public land have occurred, which are now often either too difficult or too expensive to regularize. Realizing the importance of secure property tenure and efficient property markets, BiH entity governments passed a law on Land Registry in 2002 to underpin the establishment of a reliable registration system. The German-owned international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development GTZ has been assisting the government to develop a viable Land Registration system and the country is now in the position to implement it nationwide.

 The project will have three components:

a.         The registration component (US$7.376 million) will improve the transparency, speed, and accuracy of registering transactions.

b.         The cadastre component (US$6.557 million) will improve the efficiency and speed of provision of data on property units for clients wishing to register their property rights.
c.         The policy development and project management (US$1.066 million) component will help develop the policies, implementation strategies and draft legislation required for removing the current impediments to business development and economic growth that exist in the land administration sector.

 By the time the project is completed, existing backlogs will be eliminated and each of the 47 Court Registration offices (19 in the Republic Srpska and 28 in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) will be fully automated.  All records will be stored in digital form and available on the internet for legitimate enquirers to get rapid information about properties, their owners and the encumbrances on the property. Registration of any new transaction will be completed within a day for 95% of cases and registration will be able to be completed ‘on-line’ if required.

 The project will not support land acquisition and associated involuntary resettlement; it will not change ownership or use rights in forest lands or protected areas, and it will not support eviction or similar enforcement of laws addressing illegal occupation of state land.   However, the project will begin to assess the magnitude and nature of the illegal or other informal occupation and settlements, and develop a strategy to address these issues in a future, follow-on phase of the long-term program.  This strategy will take into account good practice and lessons learned from other countries.

 Since 1996, the World Bank has committed $1.1 billion to BiH through 52 projects.   The latest World Bank Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for BiH targets to provide $30-40 million a year during 2005-07 in support of the implementation of BiH’s Medium-Term Development Strategy.

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