Action Plan for Property Registration

Project Narrative

According to Doing Business 2017 Egypt stood at a rank of 119 out of 200 economies world-wide for registering property, because: the cadaster was incomplete; the processes were complex and lengthy; and there was little automation in the property rights system. To address this, there was a clear need for a roadmap of both short- and longer-term actions for necessary legal and institutional reform, particularly addressing the lack of synergy between the cadaster and the registration process, the needs of urban areas, and the establishment of a more integrated spatial data infrastructure. Provision of technical support to piloting the application of the title system in selected cities, as well as updating the titles in the rural areas is envisioned as a follow-up to this project.

Ultimately, the activity was aimed at eliminating business environment obstacles to the formation and growth of enterprises in Egypt. To achieve this objective, the consultants supported the World Bank to provide technical assistance to the Government of Egypt (GoE) and relevant regulatory agencies to a) identify deficiencies in laws and regulations governing land surveying and registration; b) assess the ICT, geospatial data infrastructure, service modernization and digitation, and electronic governance; and c) articulate actionable recommendations to address obstacles and support implementation.

Key services provided

LEI provided a team of two international land administration experts who worked closely in collaboration with a national consultant and the World Bank Task Team. The assignment involved the following:

• Rapid desktop and in-country review and analysis of the existing policy, legal and institutional framework and performance of property registration and land administration nation-wide.
• Facilitation of and participation in a wide range of stakeholder consultations
• Preparation of an action plan for short term actions that specifically improve property registration in Egypt, concentrating on but not limiting to the Doing Business Index indicators of a) Procedures to legally transfer title on immovable property, b) Time required to complete each [property registration] procedure, c) Cost required to complete each procedure and d) the indicators of the Quality of land administration index.
• Preparation of an issues analysis and action plan on medium- and longer-term actions to improve land administration in Egypt, including institutional and legal reform needed to advance property registration.

The team additionally developed a number of international case studies on land reform of interest to the Egyptian context.