Cadastral Template 2.0

Belarus

Contact person for provided information:

Prof. Dr. Sergei Shavrov
Belarus State Technological University
Board Member of “Land Reform” Assosiaton (FIG member)
shavrov (at) ipps.by

Part 1: Country Report

A. Country Context

A.1 Geographical Context

Belarus is a state in  Eastern Europe. The population was 9,498,364 citizens at the beginning of 2016.  The country’s  territory  is  207,600 km².  Minsk is  the  capital and the largest city of the state, it’s population is 1,938,280 people. Country area is subdivided into 6 areas and Minsk city.  The urban population constitutes about 77% of total population. Belarus has borders with Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Russia  and Ukraine.  Forests cover about 38.8 % of territory of the country, agricultural land covers about 43.8 % of the country territory.

A.2 Historical Context

Belarus was part of the Russian empire till 1917. 
Belarus was a part of the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1991.
Belarus is an independent state since 1991.
Belarus has suffered strongly from the Second World War and failure at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

A.3 Current Political and Administrative Structures

Belarus is a unitary republic of presidential type. The state constitution has been accepted in 1994. Belarus is divided into 6 regions. Regions themselves are dvided into areas and cities of regional submission. The total number of areas in all regions is 118 and the total number of cities of regional submission is 12. Minsk city is an independent administrative unit which is not part of any region.

A.4 Historical Outline of Cadastral System

The system of buildings and constructions inventory (prototype of cadastre) has been developed in 1947. Since that moment this kind of activity was in competence of technical inventory bureaus, subordinated to local authorities. Up to 1993 the State was a single land owner. Formation and registration of land parcels began in 1991.

A strong impulse was given to cadastre development in 1993. This is the year intensive process of habitation privatization began. The role of technical inventory system was significantly increased.

In 1994 the World Bank provided Belarus with a grant «In support of development of immovable property cadastre and right registration system in Belarus». The draft of the Law “About State Registration of Immovable Property, Rights to it and Transactions with them» was developed as part of this project. Steve Butler (USA), World Bank expert, proposed the initial draft of the Law.

Within the frame of the same project the pilot  ICT system for registration of the  Real Estate and Right on it has been created. Karin Heldrup from “Kampsax Geoplan” company, Denmark, took part in this work as an expert. The system has been successfully tested and introduced in Brest city.  The project has been successfully finished in 1996.  Project results have been discussed with participation of foreign experts from Sweden NLS, Spain Registrars College and others in 1997.

In 1998, State Committee for land resources of the Republic of Belarus established  the National Cadastral Agency (NCA). From this time two cadastral systems began to exist  in the country. The first system was the old technical inventory system.  In other words it was a cadastre and right registration system for building, premises and construction. Technical inventory Bureaus subordinated to local government and Ministry for housing and communal services. The second system was the new system for land parcels cadastre and rights registration on it.  NCA with its bureaus at every administrative-territorial unit was the operator of this system.

In 2002, the Parliament adopted Law “About State Registration of Immovable Property, Rights to it and Transactions with them”. These Law has come into force at May, 8th, 2003. Due to the Law both cadastral systems have been united in a single cadastre system. State Committee for Land Resources became the authorized state body for cadastre.  National Cadastre Agency became the republican organization of united system.

Modern Belarusian cadastral information system has been created in 2006 in full volume.  Belarus' Doing Business rating of WB “Property Registration” was becoming better and better during 2006-2009. At last in 2010 this rating achieved 3rd place in the world (7th place in 2016).  NCA General director was elected into a bureau of Working Party on Land Administration of the UNECE (WPLA UNECE) in 2008 with his term ending in 2012.  In 2004 the NCA has executed the pilot project of a mass appraisal of land resources. The register of land cadastre cost was created in 2006. In 2010 Parliaments adopted the law according to which cadastral cost became the base for land taxation. Mass appraisal of land  is carried out by NCA now.

B. Institutional Framework

B.1 Government Organizations

The structure of state institutions in the field of state registration of immovable property is as follows:

1. Specially authorized body of state management of the Republic of Belarus in the sphere of state registration, subordinate to the Government of the Republic of Belarus  (now State Committee for Property of the Republic of Belarus);
2. Republican organization for state registration;
3. Territorial organizations for state registration.

Legal status of the republican organization and territorial organizations for state registration is “republican unitary enterprise”.

Republican organization on state registration (NCA) provides methodological and general management of the activities of the territorial organizations for state registration, control their activities. NCA claims workflow rules in the territorial organizations for  immovable property registration, carries out technical inventory of real property and Real Estate inspection characteristics in the cases and procedure established by a specially authorized state body. 

Agency establishes rules for territorial organizations for state registration, coordinates the activities of territorial organizations for state registration. NCA create and maintain the unified state register for immovable property, rights and deals with them, provides protection against unauthorized access and destruction. NCA conducts certification of Registrars and maintains a registry of registrars. It supervises the correct fulfillment of registration actions of Registrars. Registrars, partly surveyors, are working mainly in 7 territorial organizations for state 
registration.

B.2 Private Sector Involvement

Part of cadastral surveying companies belongs to the private sector.

B.3 Professional Organization or Association

There is no professional organization or association for cadastral surveyors. At the same time in the country there is non-governmental, not political, noncommercial Association “Land Reform”. The  purpose of this NGO is to create conditions for effective land utilization.  Some cadastral surveyors are members of this association. NGO “Land Reform”  is a sole member of the International Federation of Surveyors FIG from Belarus.

B.4 Licensing

State registrars of immovable property are subjects of certification. Certification should be carried out  every  five years. Certification  is granted  by  commission appointed by the State committee for property of Belarus. There are registers of state registrars and cadastral engineers. Activity of cadastral engineers (land surveyors) is not subject to licensing.

B.5 Education

There are 4 universities offering degrees for cadastral surveying professionals, Real Estate Registrars, Real Estate Managers.  These are Belarus State University, Belarus State Technological University, Polotsk State University and Belarus Agricultures Academy in Gorky. Approximate average annual number of students graduating from those universities is about 150-250 persons.

Improvement of professional skills of the persons working in cadastral system is carried out in the special educational centre of the State Committee for property.

C. Cadastral System

C.1 Purpose of Cadastral System

The cadastral system in Belarus has traditional targets, similar to other countries.  Cadastre system is created and maintained for the purpose of implementation of effective public policies in the field of real estate management;  real estate tax;  protection of public and private interests in the legal relations connected with  Real Estate;  state control over use and protection of immovable property;  information support of investors and other participants in the Real Estate market, the state bodies, including tax and statistical.

C.2 Types of Cadastral System

A unified cadastral system is  for the whole territory. Data on immovable property and rights to it are concentrated in a single register.

There is no information about the unauthorized illegal construction in cadastral system, but there is information about the property, the rights to which are unknown. Local governments are responsible for such registrations.

C.3 Cadastral Concept

The cadastre concept in Belarus corresponds to the concept of land administration accepted in the world. 

Objects of immovable property registration are as follows:

1. Real estate: land parcels, buildings, constructions, premises (inhabited and uninhabited), parking places, non-finished objects of construction, enterprises as property complexes. Enterprises as property complexes are created for transactions fulfillment of movable and immovable property simultaneously. 
2. Rights on immovable property: ownership, lifelong inherited possession, rights of  permanent and temporary land usage, economic maintenance, the operational administration right.
3. Encumbrance of ownership rights: rent, mortgage, trust managing, servitude. 
4. Restrictions of immovable property usage. 
5. Deals with immovable property. 

In Belarus the term "land parcel" corresponds to scenarios (i) in question 2.3. 

Cadastral system is also responsible for administrative and territorial units’ registration. Example of territorial units is a special mode of use zones (national parks, reserves, water security zones, etc.). 

Cadastral system is also responsible for registration of mass appraisal results, prices in transactions, addresses, streets and roads names. 

Organizations on the state registration system are self financed from different sources, including local budgets.

C.4 Content of Cadastral System

The State Land cadastre of Belarus includes following information units:

1. United Register of Administrative-territorial and Territorial Units of Belarus;
2. United Register of Immovable Property, rights to it and transactions with them;
3. Register of the Prices to Immovable Property;
4. Register of Cadastre Cost of Land Areas;
5. Register of Land Resources; 
6. Address Register.

United Register of Immovable Property, rights to it and transactions with them is the uniform resource combining cadastre of immovable property and the register of the rights to it (land book, land register, parcel register, cadastral survey).  NCA is the operator of all cadastral information systems and information units.

D. Cadastral Mapping

D.1 Cadastral Map

Cadastral map is the document of the United Register of Immovable Property, rights to it and transactions with them. It is conducted exclusively in the digital form.  Cadastral map is formed on user demand in digital form.  Cadastral map is relevant to the moment of inquiry. The cadastral map is formed by combination of vector digital map or ortophotomap with data of United Register of Administrative-territorial and Territorial Units of Belarus and United Register of Immovable Property, rights to it and transactions with them.

Maintenance rules and accuracy of digital map is regulating by technical standards. Ortophotomaps are formed by regular air photography. Data in cadastral cards from registers is as follows: borders of administrative units and their attributes; land parcel boundaries and their attributes; geographical codes and attributes of addresses and others.

Cadastral maps are accessible in Internet. Such maps carry the name “Public Cadastral Maps”. Public cadastral maps are accessible from a geoportal http://map.nca.by. Access is free of charge.

D.2 Example of a Cadastral Map

D.3 Role of Cadastral Layer in SDI

Cadastre maps are parts of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).

One example of cadastral map used as a SDI layer is multilevel corporate municipal GIS. This GIS was created in Belarus for support of territories management. Cadastral map in this system is combined with such SDI layers as «municipal activity», «monitoring of land tenure according to remote sensing», «crowdsoursing», « territorial planning documents», «monitoring of construction activity on urban territory», etc. Access to a geoportal of this system is possible by URL: http://mrrgis.nca.by

Another example  of a cadastral map  used as a layer of an  SDI are information systems of local authorities supporting administrative procedures of delivery of permissions to excavation. In these systems cadastral  maps  are combined with  SDI data  of all underground engineering networks. Such system exists in Minsk, capital of Belarus, starting from 1999.

One more example of cadastral map used as SDI element is the “Land Information System” (LIS) of Belarus. LIS is the tool for surveying works. LIS is accessible via geoportal http://gismap.by.

E. Reform Issues

E.1 Cadastral Issues

1. The most important problem is the need to achieve a high data integrity and error correction in cadastre data bases.

2.  Another important problem is the need to achieve real time scale of reference in the central data bases.

3.  Yet another important problem is to achieve high quality services in the E-Government, including registration on the base of digital documents.

4. The final important problem is to provide high coverage level and high data completeness for good property tax administration.

E.2 Current Initiatives

Government approves a program of the National Cadastral System  development  for  five years period. The existing program was adopted in 2014. These program provides the following initiatives:

• The transition to real time cadastre and registry of rights;
• Reduction of registration time for some administrative procedures to up to 1 hour;
• Automatic registration in certain cases using an expert computer system;
• Coordination with the ISO 19XXX standards, including ISO 19152 "Land  Administration Domain Model"
• Transition to digital archives;
• Reduction of operating costs by optimizing the structure;
• Expansion of the quantity and quality of e-services in the framework of the creation of "E-government" in the Republic of Belarus.  Provision of electronic services based on e-documents and authorized intermediary;
• Mass immovable property formation and registration by using different methods including Remote Sensing.

F. References

The additional information can be received from following Internet resources:
www.gki.gov.by, www.nca.by, www.land-reform.com 

Part 2: Cadastral Principles and Statistics

1. Cadastral Principles

2. Cadastral Statistics