A reliable land administration system
provides clear information on the
ownership of property, supports the
security of tenure and facilitates the
development of a land market (figure
7.2). It also inhibits fraudulent actions,
such as using false documents to
conduct land transactions or selling
properties multiple times without the
knowledge of the true owners. One key
to fulfilling these functions is to have
in place the infrastructure needed to
maintain land information, supported
by an appropriate institutional framework
and adequate capacity. Doing
Business has developed a series of
questions to assess the quality of the
infrastructure of land administration
systems. These questions focus mainly
on how land records are stored at the
land registry, whether the information
is kept in an electronic database,
whether the databases for landownership
and maps are linked and whether
each parcel has a unique, searchable
identification number.