UNECE Conference Overview To support the launch of

UNECE Conference Overview To support the launch of its international strategy, HM Land Registry hosted a four-day conference programme in London from 10 – 13 October 2012. The theme was: “How can land registration authorities support recovery in the global property market and wider economy? ” The event was aimed at land administration experts, members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) community, and invited guests of HM Land Registry. It was free to attend but delegates were required to cover their own travel and accommodation costs. Four delegates were sponsored by DFID and World Bank The event was sponsored by Thomson Reuters. 1

UNECE Conference delegates 34 countries: Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech. Republic, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Malta, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sicily, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Ukraine, USA, United Kingdom Delegates profiles : Academics, chartered surveyors, consultants, economists, ELRA, EULIS, Eurogeographics, geodesy and mapping surveyors, government officials, land administration experts, lenders, real estate agents, solicitors, registrars, third sector, United Nations, World Bank 2

UNECE Conference Venue: Hotel Park Plaza Victoria, London Conference website: http: //www. landregistry. gov. uk/conference 2012 10 October 2012 Welcome reception hosted by Malcolm Dawson OBE, Chief Land Registrar, HM Land Registry 11 and 12 October • 2 day conference - Keynote speakers from the World Bank, UNECE, USA, Australia, Greece, Netherlands, Russia, Italy, and the UK, including Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Council of Mortgage Lenders, the Building Societies Association, the Olympic Delivery Authority and the Law Society for England Wales. • The conference was offered in English and Russian 13 October • Study visits to National Archives or Kew Gardens 3

Session 1 Re-building confidence in the lending market Chair: Gulnara Roll, UNECE Facilitator: Axel Threlfall, Thomson Reuters Speakers: Malcolm Dawson OBE, Chief Executive and Chief Land Registrar, HM Land Registry Desmond Hudson, Chief Executive of the Law Society of England Wales Paul Broadhead, Policy Advisor, Building Societies Association, UK Steve Williams, adviser to the UNECE Brian Emmott, adviser to the UNECE

Paul Broadhead, Policy Advisor at Building Societies Association in UK gave an overview of the UK lending market and set out his thoughts on how land administration authorities could support economic recovery. The UK shows signs of improvement; but easier access to clear and up to date land related data from a trusted source would help to build confidence amongst of all the actors involved in the property market. Malcolm Dawson OBE, Chief Land Registrar of Her Majesty’s Land Registry presented progress in England Wales towards econveyancing. All parties need to invest and cooperate to create common standards and common infrastructure. Land registration authorities do have a role to play as honest brokers to help build alliances but without imposing cost and burdens on industry. It is not the role of government to mandate a particular solution. Transparency of land property information improves efficiency, reduces transaction costs, increases security and helps prevent fraud.

Steve Williams presented a view that lack of transparency in real estate markets has been an obstacle to residential and commercial lending. Capital will not be invested if there is no sufficient information to assess risks. At the moment lender confidence is low. To attract residential and commercial loans, markets need a stable platform of contract law, information and above all, good land title. New IT and mapping technologies should make cross-border risk easier to assess. Cross-border capital into residential mortgages does not exist. But one day it maybe possible, if transparency is improved.

Brian Emmott explained that the certainty provided by a clean and secure title is a fundamental requirement for lenders. As the basis for economic recovery through real estate markets the initial basic need for knowing exactly what parcel of land is involved and accurate certainly of who had the title. This is where land registries are essential as without this information, market cannot exist. Evaluation of real estate property and market risk for real estate backed financial products project came out of the need after the 2007 -2008 financial crisis for more transparency about the underlying asset contained in the investment instrument created by securitization of the asset. Complete lack of transparency in this process helped to created the crisis. The risk rating project document provides guidelines for valuating properties used as backing for financial products. It gives to lenders guidelines for making sound lending decisions and thus increasing lenders’ confidence. Investment in real estate and real estate backed financial products will increase if these investments are more transparent and secure.

Gulnara Roll, UNECE Gulnara referred to the UNECE WPLA Study on the Challenges of Fraud to Land Administration Institutions presented good practices in the detection and prevention of fraud in land registration systems in UNECE countries. The study showed that little evidence exists that fraud increased since online services were introduced. The study showed that international cooperation is very important to combat fraud. Sharing intelligence would assist in developing early warning systems to combating fraud. Cooperation could also be extended to the development of joint evaluation of procedures for risks. Spread of good practices and assistance in combating land registration fraud.

Conclusions of Session 1 Political will, a sound legal framework and a strong institutional basis for land registration are a prerequisite for building confidence amongst lenders and investors. Transparency of land property information is equally important and should include as a minimum: • values • transaction information • rights, burdens, limitations and responsibilities Use of new technology is important. Innovative IT and mapping solutions will improve transparency, help to reduce costs to both land registration authorities and their customers. There are still cultural barriers: every country believes into different levels of transparency in information sharing. Development of capacity through training, and advisory services to transition countries is important to ensure progress is made across the UNECE region.

Session 2 Using data to stimulate economic growth Chair: Mark Boyle, Chairman, HM Land Registry Facilitator: Michael Milligan, UNECE Speakers: Ben Elder, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Ralph Luck OBE, Director of Property for the Olympic Delivery Authority, UK Dr. Diego Navarra, Professor at Cerisdi, Palermo, Italy Dr Chrissy Potsiou, Professor at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Ben Elder, RICS 60 to 70% of the world’s wealth is in land real estate Properly structured markets can increase the public benefit, allow for market efficiency, take account of externalities and achieve Pareto optimality RICS supports uniform valuation standards across the world; valuation should be transparently and consistently applied. This standardisation permits for more efficient division of labor, smaller transaction costs, reduced risk and more easily comparable global variables Multiplier effect upon economic growth Ralph Luck OBE Public private partnerships can be used to revitalize communities. Public development projects need clear titles and infusions of private money Land registration was a key influence in the success story of 2012 London Olympics, which have brought development and jobs to a deprived neighborhood, and are a success story of how public activities can stimulate private sector involvement

Diego Navarra Cities are particularly important to target sustainability; the twenty largest world cities produce 80% of greenhouse gases There a number of interconnected issues to evaluate to create sustainable cities – the environment, infrastructure, jobs and services, culture, transport, and housing and buildings Data is available for smart urban development. Whereas in the past mapping was largely a function of governments, much useful data is now collected by the private sector Future integration of layers of data and land registers are key to ensuring sustainable development and management of climate change

Chryssy Potsiou Informal development is a problem in many transition countries In Greece, for example, legalization is a long process which can easily take more than thirty years; this takes properties out of the market and contributes to the problems of the Greek economy Land administration cannot be effective if much of the real estate stock is out of the market There is a need to legalize with clear goals and pro-growth planning There is a fiscal opportunity to raise tax in a clear and transparent way

Conclusions of Session 2 Each presentation looked at contributions of data to development of economic growth in a different way: How standardisation can allow market mechanisms to generate wealth How public initiatives can stimulate private investment How data can be used to guide growth in an environmentally sustainable way How better housing and land policies can improve livelihoods and remove market impediments Common threads: public and private investment; transparency; consistency; coordination; practicality

Session 3 Technology to support efficient lending Chair: Pia Dahl-Hojgaard, Head of National Survey and Cadastre, Denmark Facilitator: Alastair Lewis, Director of Legal Services, HM Land Registry Speakers: Jackie Bennett, OBE, Head of Policy, Council for Mortgage Lenders Wim Louwman, President of the European Land Registry Association Malcolm Childress, World Bank Peter Rabley, Vice President, Tax and Accounting, Government, Thomson Reuters Rik Wouters, Managing Director of EULIS

Jackie Bennett UK mortgage lending is currently cautious but stable Loans for home ownership need stimulation with new products but lenders need to ensure that borrowers can afford their mortgages Technology to assist keeping track of who owns what and sharing information between brokers & lenders Need for specified formats and a regulatory framework Wim Louwman Cross border e-conveyancing is currently a pilot between the Netherlands and Spain It needs to be supported by a Reference Framework and a support toolbox to support users (Repository, glossary, reference information, and a helpdesk)

Malcolm Childress, World Bank Land Administration and Urban Development with reference to Russia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan Land property value derive from long term sustainability and how you deal with the challenges and risks (Externalities) Technological innovations: Russia and Kyrgyzstan: integrated cadastre, cartography and land registration institutionally and ITsystem, Ukraine: electronic cadastre to be implemented in 2013 Opportunities: on-line/(e)-registration, e-government, NSDI Challenges: dual registration land buildings, incompleteness and lack of connection to other restrictions, informal developments However: long term sustainability possible – calling on multisectoral approach to planning, regularisation and taxing

Peter Rabley described the property lending process in the US US is setting up a Lending Transaction Platform (inventory, marketing, financing, insuring, closing deals, settlement, registration A platform to tie together the systems and processes in order to address the need for universal property and loan identifiers Role of government: overall market regulation and consumer protection Rik Wouters EULIS offers the facility to support legal certainty for real estate and mortgage at EU level Breaks down barriers to information Bring benefit to a single economic market EULIS is a transactional web service with supporting reference information, and glossary

Conclusions of Session 3 Effective use of technology can help improve access to, and quality of, data. It can deliver efficiencies in terms of cost and speed. Lender confidence and improved decision making can be a consequence, which in turn will lead to an environment which encourages a healthy and re-vitalised lending market. Good examples exist from the all parts of the UNECE region But no matter where you are there is a need for: • Unambiguous definitions of property and mortgages • Standards and clear processes • Regulatory frameworks • Knowledge of country specific issues

Session 4 Vision for land registration authorities? Chair: Peter Creuzer, Agency for Geoinformation and Land Development of Lower Saxony, Germany Facilitator: Alasdair Lewis, Director of Legal Services, HM Land Registry Speakers: Warren Gordon, Head of Real Estate Know How, Olswang LLP, UK Pia Dahl-Hojgaard, Past Chair of the Permanent Committee on Cadastre Paul Dowse and Allison Bradbury, HM Land Registry Frank Tierolff, Director of Legal Affairs, Kadaster, Netherlands John Meadows, Land Equity International, Australia

Warren Gordon Set out his view as a senior conveyancing practitioner on the advantages and drawbacks of the land registration system in England Wales Advantages: HMLR provides a clear, reliable and state guaranteed register of properties, proprietors and charges Perceived limitations The register is not obliged to contain some important overriding interests such as way leave agreements (which meanst that paper documents are still required and the register isn’t seen as a standalone, complete record) General boundaries vs. determined boundaries Increase of mortgage fraud is a challenge which is yet to be fully understood E-conveyancing not yet fully developed and accepted Conclusion Conveyancers rely on land registration expertise to produce titles which are accurate

Pia Dahl-Hojgaard Pia presented the work currently underway within the Permanent Committee on Cadaster to further develop international cooperation on cadastre and land registration issues Draft of the common vision of Euro. Geographics, PCC, ELRA and EULIS is in progress, final version to be adopted in Cyprus, November 2012 Paul Dowse and Allison Bradbury described the work being considered by HM Land Registry in the light of changing trends in homeownership in the UK and new beneficiaries of the data held by their organisation. HM Land Registry is taking account of changing demographics – an ageing population, increasing personal debt and greater mobility of citizens Their vision for HMLR is a smaller organisation with a wider range of data sets to create transparency and have a wider role in society

Frank Tierolff Frank presented a case study of the Dutch Kadaster and its customers He described the drive towards e-commerce and e-conveyancing Fundamental conditions for and core components of key registers Added value through GIS John Meadows Change of market conditions and causal factors Impact on land registration authorities Ways to meet changing needs: Possible vision: Provide legal certainty and facilitate investment, promote transparency and seek continuous improvement, be customer focussed and encourage innovation

Conclusions of Session 4 Adjustments to latest market needs necessary, improve customer focus International collaboration (EULIS, cross-border activities) Interaction with cadastre and/or mapping (added value through GIS) Staff reduction vs. maintenance of core (statutory) tasks Governments to retain ultimate responsibility for maintenance of key registers and discharge of public land registration services Pressure on land is a key driver for innovation in land administration services Easy understanding of land transaction mechanisms Fees should be kept low through evolution of online services Data protection issues might arise through pressure for increased open -ness of data Engage private sector expertise for improvement of service delivery PPP arrangements (value-adding to public services) to better meet public expectations for services Awareness of key role for land registries