The formalisation of property in Peru 2001–2002: the case of Lima

Abstract

This paper deals with the policy set by the Peruvian government between November 2000 and December 2002, to legalise urban property and secure tenure in Metropolitan Lima. During this period, significant adjustments were made to the legalisation policy. The most important of these are: (i) establishing a link between the central government and local governments; (ii) unifying real estate registries; (iii) promoting real estate registries; (iv) campaigning to register constructions (“factory declarations”); and (v) seeking to establish a link between title deeds and credit mechanisms. By means of these changes, the Peruvian State (post-Fujimori) has tried to give a technical function to the Commission on the Formalisation of Informal Property (COFOPRI) to replace the image of a policy that had been used politically for electoral purposes, under the Fujimori regime. Furthermore, the paper contributes recent outcomes on the policy proposals made by Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto which predicted that holders of title deeds would be able to obtain loans from private banks. This process, which has still not been consolidated, is described and reviewed below.