Resource information
This approach resulted in the
fragmentation of agricultural holdings, with families owning
noncontiguous plots. Land use was inefficient, owing in part
to the low rate of use of agricultural machinery. Making
land use and farming more efficient will require the
establishment of a functioning land market. Granting farmers
the right to sell, exchange, and lease their land will
enable them to use it as collateral and to consolidate
family plots. The overall aim of the Armenia Title
Registration Project was to promote private sector
development by implementing a transparent, parcel-based,
easily accessible, and reliable registration system for land
and other immovable property. The system was to provide a
chronological record of property owners and their rights and
obligations. The availability of this information was
expected to reduce the transaction costs of title transfers
and mortgage financing and lead to more secure property
rights for parcels registered in the system. This in turn
was expected to lead to higher land and real estate value,
increased productivity, and the consolidation of fragmented
rural land ownership. Increased use of property as
collateral was expected to bring about general improvement
in the efficiency of rural and urban real estate markets.
The project was also intended to promote least-cost
registration procedures by building on existing property
information databases (adding only market-relevant
information to these databases), and by contracting private surveyors.
