Unlocking Land’s Potential: How Digital Registries Can Transform Property Systems

The World Bank’s new study shows that digital land registries can greatly improve governance, equity, and economic efficiency, if supported by proper regulation, interoperability, and public access. Drawing on data from 85 countries, it proposes actionable indicators to guide reform and close the global digital divide in property institutions.

A new World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, produced in partnership with the International Property Registries Association (IPRA/CINDER) and the Regional Center for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), lays out a compelling case for harnessing digital technology to transform the governance of land and property rights. The study draws on evidence from 85 countries and proposes a new set of institutional indicators to measure progress in digital land registry reform. Authored by Klaus Deininger, Thea Hilhorst, Jaap Zevenbergen, and Emmanuel Nkurunziza, the paper examines how digital tools, when applied within well-designed legal frameworks can help build trust in property systems, improve economic efficiency, and strengthen public service delivery.

Why Digitizing Land Registries Is Not a Silver Bullet

Although the global adoption of digital property registries has surged, quadrupling between 2005 and 2020, the study finds that many countries have failed to reap the full benefits of digitization. A major reason is that registries were often digitized in form, but not in function. In over 60 percent of countries with digital registries, updates to land records do not require digital authentication, leaving systems vulnerable to manipulation and preventing the establishment of transparent audit trails. Moreover, manual and digital systems frequently operate in parallel, undermining cost savings and increasing complexity. Without mandatory e-signatures, integrated workflows, or interoperability with other government systems, such as tax rolls or court databases, these registries offer only a thin veneer of modernity.

The authors stress that digitization is not a magic fix; it must be part of a wider reform process. Without appropriate regulation and institutional buy-in, digital systems can amplify existing inefficiencies or even enable new forms of corruption. The study underscores the importance of redesigning workflows, building secure data systems, and embedding registry reforms in broader policy agendas to truly deliver on the promise of digital transformation.

When Done Right, the Benefits Multiply

In contrast, countries that fully embraced digital land administration have seen significant returns. Jurisdictions that designed digital systems from scratch rather than retrofitting legacy paper-based ones often moved more quickly and achieved better results. These countries made progress in areas such as electronic conveyancing, automated checks for encumbrances, machine-readable access to land price data, and direct links to digital personal and company IDs. They also integrated land registries with other institutional systems such as the courts, cadaster, and tax agencies.

The study cites Eastern and Central European countries as leaders in this space, with many outperforming even high-income OECD countries in digital integration. In these regions, digitized registries have improved financial market functioning, enabled faster dispute resolution, and created stronger legal protection for landholders. Access to up-to-date property data has also helped public agencies plan infrastructure investments, enforce land-use regulations, and design climate-resilient urban development strategies.

Property Taxation: The Missing Link

One of the most compelling findings of the report is the underutilized potential of digital land registries to enhance property taxation. Despite being a progressive and stable source of local government revenue, property tax is often poorly administered in developing countries. In many of the surveyed jurisdictions, tax rolls had not been updated in over five years, and modern valuation tools such as Computer-Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) were rarely used. Only 27 percent of countries updated taxable property values annually, and fewer still made those values publicly available.

This gap has major implications. Failure to align registry and tax data reduces tax fairness and buoyancy, limits revenue for urban services, and undermines public trust. Worse, fragmented systems can result in missed opportunities for governments to finance infrastructure through land value capture. The paper calls for stronger interoperability between registries and tax systems and recommends requiring tax clearance certificates before property transfers, an effective but underused policy lever. In most countries, such certificates are not digitally integrated into the property registration process.

Transparency, Equity, and Gender Inclusion

The authors place strong emphasis on the potential for digital systems to promote inclusion and accountability. Where legal safeguards exist, digital registration can empower women by making it easier to document joint or individual ownership. The study highlights Rwanda and Lesotho as success stories where nudges during registration campaigns led to a dramatic increase in parcels registered to women. More than half of the African and Middle Eastern countries in the sample now record gender-disaggregated land data, a promising trend for monitoring equity outcomes in land governance.

Yet significant gaps remain. In some jurisdictions, customary land rights are excluded from digital registration, reinforcing inequalities and increasing the likelihood of conflict. Meanwhile, the management of public land remains opaque in many settings. Less than half of the surveyed countries require competitive bidding for the transfer of public land, and only a quarter make related contracts publicly available. The report suggests that digital platforms could improve transparency and third-party monitoring, but only if the right legal and institutional frameworks are in place.

A Blueprint for Smart Reform

Beyond diagnosing weaknesses, the paper offers a forward-looking agenda. It introduces a detailed set of indicators to assess institutional readiness and performance in digital land governance. These indicators cover national registry scope, interoperability with tax and judicial systems, access to price and ownership data, cadastral mapping, and use of digital IDs. Importantly, they also assess gender inclusiveness, property tax administration, and the transparency of public land transfers.

The framework is designed not just to benchmark progress, but to catalyze reform. By making registry quality measurable, the indicators provide governments with a tool to identify reform priorities and track improvements over time. They also create opportunities for cross-country learning. For instance, Rwanda’s success in achieving near-universal coverage and adopting digital records provides useful lessons for peer countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Likewise, Costa Rica, Türkiye, and others show how even high-performing countries can fine-tune their systems by adopting best practices in e-signature, interoperability, or public contract disclosure.

In a world grappling with rapid urbanization, climate change, and growing demands for equitable access to resources, the role of secure, efficient, and transparent land registries is becoming ever more critical. As this paper makes clear, digital technology can be a powerful enabler but only when anchored in good governance and smart policy design.