The name is absent

27

expands with registration, the demand for reissuing leases via surrenders or assignments will place
ever greater demands on the registry.

Table 1.9: Issuances, transfers, and mortgages of leases, 1990 to 1992

a_. Total value of mortgages was K809.7 million in 1989, K695.1 million in 1990, and K653.2 million in 1991.

Source: MOL.

Unfortunately, lack of time series data on official transfer fees preclude any analysis of the
elasticity or inelasticity of land transfers (how transfers change with adjustments in the level of transfer
fees). A high elasticity would imply a strong positive response to a reduction in transfer fees
(elaborated on in chapter 4), a negative response would imply only a limited potential land market
response, perhaps due to subdivision policy. Without such an analysis, only weak conclusions can be
drawn from the data in table 1.9: land transfers (assignments) are low. While subdivision policy may
be constraining land markets, it is not an absolute constraint as transfers appear to be easing with time.
(Ministry officials note that many if not most subdivisions have been approved in recent years;
landholders taking excessive time to work through the various administrative procedures, however,
may be dissuading potential market participants from selling land.)

At present, there are between 70,000 to 100,000 titles issued nationwide (MOL estimates).
Most are residential properties, but a large number are agricultural properties, mainly registrations
by "emerging" and "medium-scale" farmers (see chapter 3). New applications for title brought forward
to the Land Allocation Committee" provide a fairly good indication of the overall split between
agricultural and non-farm demands for title. During the first 5 months of 1993, a total of 2,486
applications for title were made to the councils: 58.5 percent were for residential property, 33.7
percent for agricultural property, 7.3 percent for commercial and industrial property, and 0.5 percent
other. (See chapter 3 for a more complete and detailed regional breakdown.) Of the agricultural
leasehold applications, over 71 percent originated in the councils located in the urban and peri-urban
settings of Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces. Whether this demand stems from higher population
densities, nearer access to the registry, greater demand for tenure security, or enhanced credit access
is not possible to sort out from existing data.

B. Potential leasehold demand

The above estimates of current lease issuances and transfers reflect only the "flow" of work
by the MOL and exclude lease applications in process and known future demands. Besides the 1,750

¹³ This agency appears to be fulfilling the functions of the board in the Agricultural Lands Act.

<<   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   >>

More intriguing information