Creating

28 DOING BUSINESS IN 2006
Who is reforming?
Sixteen countries made it easier to register property in
2004. Most made the process cheaper. A third made it
simpler and cut delays. On average the top 10 reformers
reduced the number of procedures by 12%, the time
required by 16% and the cost by 43% (figure 5.1).
Countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia led
the way in reforming property registration. Georgia—
the top reformer in 2004—made the most progress. The
newly created Agency of Public Registry offers expedited
registration and combines other procedures to allow
entrepreneurs to obtain a registry extract, certificate of
property boundaries and proof of no other claims all
at the same time. Before, that took visits to 3 agencies.
The time required fell from 39 days to 9, and the procedures
from 8 to 6 (figure 5.2). Georgia also cut fees
and eliminated the transfer tax, reducing the costs of
registration by 75%.
Latvia launched an expedited option for obtaining
information from the State Land Service. The entrepreneur
pays an extra $5.20, but gets results 5 times as fast.
Slovakia abolished its 3% transfer tax, eliminating the
double taxation with income tax and entering the top
10 list for ease of registering property. The cost fell to
only 0.1% of the property value, and 2 steps—the official
property valuation and payment of the transfer
tax—were cut.
Poland and Serbia and Montenegro are seeing the
benefits of comprehensive reform. By starting to computerize
land records, Poland freed up 7 more days of an
entrepreneur’s time for business. Further improvements
are expected as more records go online. Croatia is starting
similar reforms. Serbia and Montenegro shortened
the registration process by 40% by unifying its registration
system—linking the physical boundary maps of the
cadastre with the legal records of the land registry. Titles
are also more accurate now. The new procedures cover
65% of the country, and delays are expected to drop
further as the coverage is completed.
OECD countries already had the most efficient
property registration and they improved even more in
2004. Switzerland eliminated its 1% transfer tax, entering
the top 10 ranking on least costly property registration
(table 5.2). Now registering costs only 0.4% of the
property value. The Netherlands simplified property
registration to just 2 procedures and 2 days by introducing
online title search, execution and registration—and
moved up into the top 10 list for both procedures and
time. Australia also launched online services, cutting the
time from 7 days to 5—but raised costs by 50%.