Land legal, policy and institutional reforms combined with public awareness campaigns are key in driving land markets and access to credit. Often seen as an enabling factor, an effective land governance system can offer stand alone, wide-reaching, and long-term benefits. Effective reforms to land governance improve customer service around formal land transactions, decrease transaction costs, and advance confidence in the land administration system. When sustained, this in turn catalyzes formal land transactions and mortgages, especially in urban areas where statutory land rights and formal banks are in place. Land holders who have access to effective land administration services will sporadically register to access a mortgage or conduct a land transfer.
The Land Administration Reform Activity resulted in cutting in half land transaction times and doubling of land transfers and mortgages. The evaluation found these benefits largely derived from the legal, policy and institutional reforms, such as the creation of the Land Administration Authority (LAA) and removal of the ministerial consent on secondary land transactions like mortgages. Sporadic registration was associated with higher levels of land transfers and mortgages.
The importance and benefit streams from policy and institutional reform have also been flagged in other recent MCC land evaluations such as the evaluation of the Mongolia Property Rights Project. MCC land projects continue to prioritize not only clarification and recognition of land rights but also the legal, policy and institutional reforms to create a working land governance environment, which is a necessary foundation to sustain these land rights but also has standalone benefits that reach beyond areas of land titling and expand across the country, catalyzing land and financial markets well beyond the compact period.