99
► State lease: lease issued on State Land.
► Right of occupancy: lease issued on Trust Land.
► Sublease: sublease on either State, Trust, or Reserve Land.
► Deed of guarantee: lien placed on property by building societies or other official agencies,
guaranteed by the Ministry of Finance.
► Mortgage: lien placed on property by banks or other formal lending institutions for long-term
credit involving land or fixed land improvements.
► Surrender: voluntary surrender of a lease. This may mean either giving up a lease or
converting from an unsurveyed 14-year lease to a surveyed 99-year lease.
► Reentry: repossession of a leasehold because the lease conditions are not met (e.g., the rent
is not paid or the plot is not developed).
Data for all transfers are recorded and filed on a computerized database maintained in the
MOL. Efforts to construct the computerized database began in 1990. Data on leases were automated
back to roughly 1987, but the reliability of the data is questionable as there is no guarantee of
completeness in data entry. To conserve time, the decision was made to omit entering data on
mortgages and offers prior to 1990. In the ministry's current usage, assignments, transfers, subleases,
mortgages, and deeds of guarantee all refer to leasehold property. Under the Lands Department's
current practices, there is no dealing in land held under customary law (e.g., areas of Reserve Land).
All categories are theoretically unique in that no transfer is allowed to be included in more than one
category. The extent to which mutual exclusivity is maintained is difficult to assess, but, on the
surface, records since 1990 appear well maintained thanks in large part to assistance provided by
SIDA in computerizing records.
A. Regional distribution of transfers
Detailed data for the period 1990 to 1993 (July) are reported for total number of transfers,
total area of transfers, average area transferred, and the average price (only for assignments,
subdivisions, deed of gift and transfers) in annex 3.4 for property transfers, annex 3.5 for lease
issuances, annex 3.6 for reentries and surrenders, and annex 3.7 for liens and mortgages. Percentages
of each type of transfer by region, and total number and area of leases nationwide are reported in table
3.11.
The level of activity is very similar to that found above for private transfers which suggests
that private and official markets are picking up the same dynamics, or the two markets are in fact
partially inclusive. Between the period 1 January 1990 and 31 July 1993, the government issued 6,013
state leases, 98 reserve leases, 237 rights of occupancy, conducted 2,972 assignments, and 215
subdivisions. Moreover, 530 leaseholders voluntarily surrendered their leases, while the government