Spain 
Italy 
Greece 
Land Registry: Just Over a Third of Lands Registered
3 August 2018
In nine months, the government’s pilot project registered just 37.72% of the properties in the ten counties that are testing the system. Property owners can now outline their properties online.
Nine months after launching the government’s pilot project to register the properties within Portugal’s national borders, only about a third have been registered. According to the Ministry of Justice (MJ), just 37.72% of the total area of the ten counties chosen for the experiment has already been registered – corresponding to an area of 91,781 hectares.
From November 2017 until now, 45,817 properties were georeferenced, accounting for 9.21% of the total of the existing deeds for the ten municipalities and corresponding to a total area of 20,628 hectares. The MJ stated that the land registry has witnessed “enormous demand” and, for this reason, opened new desks in the parishes of Vila Facaia and Graça (Pedrógão Grande county) so that landowners can register without having to go to the municipal capital. According to the office of the minister Francisca Van Dunem, by May, appointments at the Pedrógão desk were fully booked until the end of the pilot project on October 30.
In response, the MJ said that an agreement would soon be signed between the ministry, Nature and Forest Conservation Institute (ICNF) and the ten town councils, whereby funds would be allocated from the Permanent Forestry Fund to hire more “means” for the preparation of the registry.
Furthermore, the government has also created a new way to facilitate land registration. Since July 24, homeowners no longer need to go to the land registry desk in person during the first phase of the process. They can use the BUPi platform – which already exists and where the registry can be partially completed – and draw an “outline” of their land on a map. Next, surveyors validate the information through on-site visits and move on with the rest of the process. The MJ noted, however, that only citizens who have the digital mobile key associated with the citizen’s card have access to the new tool.
Following last year’s wildfires, the Portuguese government decided to go ahead with a pilot project to register the land in ten different counties. The municipalities of Caminha, Alfândega da Fé, Pedrógão Grande, Castanheira de Pera, Figueiró dos Vinhos, Góis, Pampilhosa da Serra, Penela, Sertã and Proença-a-Nova are participating in the project. According to the MJ, more than 86% of the land in these areas is not registered, although registration has been mandatory for more than ten years.
The process began in November of last year, under the Forest Reform, and lasts until October 30. The registration is free during this experimental phase. People whose lands are already registered must ask for their geo-referencing, the identification of the limits of properties with geographical coordinates using satellites and GPS, which is conducted by state surveyors. The geo-referencing is also free in the ten counties covered by the pilot project until the end of October.
At the end of the pilot project, the government will present the results of the registration drive, and the National Assembly will be called upon to evaluate them. Subsequently, the project may be rolled out to the whole of Portugal. The pilot project for the ten counties alone is expected to cost approximately two million euros.
The lost results of the Dulce Pássaro registration project
This is not the first attempt by a government to try to register all of the properties in the country. During José Sócrates’ government, a pilot project was also carried out, led by the then Minister of the Environment. In 2011, Dulce Pássaro chose seven “pioneering” counties – Paredes, Penafiel, Oliveira do Hospital, Seia, Loulé, Tavira and São Brás de Alportel – to test what was intended to be the “National System for the Operation and Management of Registry Information.”
The experience cost about 17 million euros, but the results never saw the light of day, because the Socrates government fell in the meantime and the project was subsequently abandoned. Dulce Pássaro explained to the JN a few months ago that when she left the ministry, the survey in the seven counties had already been completed. However, the current government failed to take advantage of the completed project and instead chose another ten municipalities to re-test the registry. In 2011, it was estimated that the full registry could cost 700 million euros.
Original Story: Sapo / ionline – Rosa Ramos
Photo: Shutterstock
Translation: Richard Turner