While Vietnam's reforms provided some of the weakest legal private property rights amongst the transitions countries, cities like Ho Chi Minh City have booming domestic real estate markets. Interestingly, while most properties in 2001 did not have legal title, those on the market did advertise a variety of property rights claims. Employing a hedonic price model to analyse the pattern of prices at which sellers offer properties in Ho Chi Minh City, this study examines how this market values property rights.

The process of decollectivization in Vietnam, leading up to the 1993 Land Law, ensured farming households the rights to market their own produce and to transfer, exchange, lease, inherit, and mortgage their land-use rights. These changes imply a reworking of relations between state, market, and household, but also within households. Although the allocation of agricultural land in northern Vietnam was relatively equitable, allocation by the state represents only one channel of entitlements to land.

SUMMARY: Despite a centralized political system, nation-wide legal reforms, and similar high housing demand pressures, property rights have evolved differently in Vietnam’s two leading cities Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City during the transition period. Using ethnographic fieldwork and a hedonic price model, the study shows that the two land and housing markets price tenure ambiguity differently. The different price structures indicate the importance of norms, as socially constructed by local political interests and culture, in the efficacy of land title regularization programs.

The government of Laos has identified the eradication of poverty as a priority. Given the primarily agricultural character of the country, it has selected land reform as a core policy to reach this goal. The policy has two major aims: to increase land tenure security in order to encourage farmer involvement in intensive farming, and to eliminate slash-and-burn agriculture to protect the environment in a country still rich in forest resources.

The factsheet presents context, approach and project details of the Global Program Responsible Land Policy in Peru (ProTierras Communales).

Das Factsheet stellt Kontext, Ansatz und Projektdetails des Globalen Programms für verantwortungsbewusste Landpolitik in Peru (ProTierras Communales) vor. 

The native communities of San Martín and its representative organizations face innumerable challenges in relation to their lands and territory, environment, governance, identity, justice and physical integrity, among others. For many years the land titling process was stagnant due to lack of funding, but today, with the presence of several projects that have considerable sums destined to the degree, the natives are be prepared and trained in this subject, as well as in the multiplicity of issues that challenges them.

This paper discusses Indonesia’s experience with establishing a uniform cadastral system in rural areas since the idea was first mooted in the early 19th century. Until 1961, a formal cadastre that identified, measured, registered and certified land titles existed only in urban areas. A cadastre for rural land did not start until after the 1960 Agrarian Law. Until then, the village-based land tax registers acted as a substitute cadastral register in areas subject to land tax.

Registration of land title evidences an indefeasible ownership. However, many people have become victims of fraud. Due to the increase in fraud and the weaknesses of the registration system in the country, this study aims to provide solution to the problem. The paper highlights the controversy surrounding indefeasibility and the concept of federalism in the land administration systems in Malaysia. The electronic land systems and fraud prevention measures in the country are also analysed. While other jurisdictions have title assurance fund, it is not available in Malaysia.

Tropical forests in Indonesia are subject to major transformation processes from native forests to other land uses, including rubber agroforestry as well as rubber and oil palm plantation systems. Using content analysis of policy documents, this paper aims at (i) analysing the formal administrative responsibilities related to the four rainforest transformation systems and (ii) based on the informal motives of the competing bureaucracies involved generating hypotheses on their future course of action and related research.

This paper is an abridged version of an earlier scoping study entitled Sri Lanka Country Report: Land Watch Asia Study prepared in 2010 by the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement through the support of the International Land Coalition (ILC). It is also written as a contribution to the Land Watch Asia (LWA) campaign to ensure that access to land, agrarian reform and sustainable development for the rural poor are addressed in development.

The report answers the following questions:

1. Is perpetual fee simple ownership of real property permitted? If not, what are the principal forms of ownership, or other principal form of ownership, of real property?

2. What instruments are used to convey fee simple ownership, or other principal form of ownership, of real estate?

3. How in this jurisdiction is the ownership of real property recorded or searched? Who generally performs the search?