Reforming Land and Real Estate Markets

Galal, Ahmed ; Razzaz, Omar

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL LAND;    AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT;    ALLOCATIVE EFFICIENCY;    ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION;    BANK FAILURE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2616
RP-ID  :  WPS2616

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Land and real estate reforms have notbeen effective at achieving their objectives, in partbecause of how they have been designed and implemented. Tobe successful, reforms must become comprehensive in design,argue the authors, although implementation may be phasedover time and take local conditions into account. Reformmust include three elements: 1) Institutional reforms thatbetter define property rights, reduce information asymmetry,and improve contract enforcement. 2) Capital market reformsthat make mortgage finance available at reasonable rates,especially for the poor. 3) Market reforms that reduce oreliminate the main distortions in the prices of goods andservices produced by land and real estate assets. In theirreview of land and real estate reforms supported by theWorld Bank, the authors find that such reforms receive lessattention at the conceptual stage than they should,considering their great impact on poverty, growth, andstability. They base their conclusion on the limitedcoverage of land and real estate issues in countryassistance strategies, the main vehicle for identifyingpriority areas for reform. Most Bank-supported projects donot address all three elements critical for reform. And mostprovide no justification for excluding them, and no plan forfollow-up. The Bank's Operations Evaluation Departmentrates Bank-supported land and real estate projectsrelatively well on outcome and sustainability but not oninstitutional development. But land and real estate reformis institutional by nature. The authors urge the Bank andpolicymakers to change course. After a comprehensiveassessment of the status of real estate institutions andmarkets, all actors in this sector should be pulled togetherto develop a comprehensive approach to land and real estate reform.