Land markets, information, and a property registration system in Albania

Abstract

This article describes the creation of land markets within an overall strategy of converting from a centrally planned economy to a market-based economy. The first major step is the privatization of rights to immovable property (land and dwelling units in particular). This process is well advanced, with some remaining problems: (1) the rights of family members to such property are ill defined; (2) there are residual conflicts over the distributed ex-cooperative land; (3) buying and selling agricultural land is prohibited, but it is likely that informal transactions are occurring, leading to legal insecurities; (4) the recording of titles to immovable property is dispersed, being different for urban and agricultural properties; (5) condominium arrangements for urban apartment buildings are not in place; (6) land allocated to apartment buildings is not sufficient for access and owner use; (7) land invasions are common in urban areas; (8) legislation has not been consistent, creating overlapping rights to urban commercial properties. The effort to create a unified Property Registration System is urgently needed to overcome these problems and to move the country toward a socially and environmentally sustainable land market. Legislation and institutional arrangements for the PRS are in place, ready for the systematization of information about rights to real property.