Property deals to take only 16 days

Inheritance wrangles in Tana River County that have resulted in the deaths, and other undesirable consequences, including arrest and imprisonment. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Kamuto says the government’s intention of issuing title deeds for  all properties, which has so far see it  issue 3.2 million title deeds countrywide against a target of 4.5 million by 2022, has also made property transactions more secure.
  • This, he said, would improve the security of property rights, which will in turn lead to increased revenue generation for the government since investors will have the confidence to invest in the country since there is reduced risk of fraud, given that  properties without  title deeds will be hard to put up for sale.

Property deals in the country will now be concluded within 16 days, unlike in the past when the process was unnecessarily long.

In addition, the government will compensate for all losses incurred in  transactions conducted  in good faith but based on erroneous information provided  by its agencies.

This comes  after the Land ministry announced a complete overhaul of the procedural bottlenecks that have been making property transactions take unnecessarily long, discouraging would-be investors in the sector. Thanks to the new procedures, Kenya is now ranked 125 (up from 129) among the 190 member countries  of the Property Ranking Database.

Land Communications Director Joseph Kamuto said the improvement was achieved by reorganising the procedures for registering property deals, authenticating them and issuing title deeds for them

 Mr Kamuto says the government’s intention of issuing title deeds for  all properties, which has so far see it  issue 3.2 million title deeds countrywide against a target of 4.5 million by 2022, has also made property transactions more secure.

This, he said, would improve the security of property rights, which will in turn lead to increased revenue generation for the government since investors will have the confidence to invest in the country since there is reduced risk of fraud, given that  properties without  title deeds will be hard to put up for sale.

He said many property deals were dragging on as the owners  went looking for  title deeds from government offices.

“It is as a result of all the relevant departments coming together and doing away with the hindrances to smooth transactions in property-related deals. We  then implemented strategies aimed at easing the way of handling those deals,” he told DN2.

 He said a policy guideline is already out limiting the period within which to transact a  property deal to not more than 16 days upon receipt at the land ministry.

 “We have adopted an online assessment of payment of stamp duty, land rent and  title searches for all property deals. This has reduced the time it would take property dealers shuffling papers from one office to the other,” he said.

He said the abolishment of manual procedures have also eliminated brokers, who frequently engaged in corrupt deals,  thereby delaying approvals at every turn in the relevant government service.

 He said the policy guideline stipulates that  all property deals must be transacted online.

 Mr Kamuto said the broader aspect of this new move includes public awareness of the migration from  manual property transactions to the digital platform.

 “On our part, we have made sure that our records which investors will  search for   are updated and easy to access,” he said, adding that land administration records have been updated and uploaded in simple versions that reflect transparency.

He said that information has been clustered in land-use categories, such that one can ascertain whether a property is on a public utility space, or is in an agricultural or industrial area.

“The information on land is complete, with survey records, transfers so far executed, whether the property has an existing trade restriction and its exact size and location,” he said.

 He added that all information on a buildings includes its legality, its current rating by architectural standards, estimated value and its projected appreciation or depreciation in value.

 To rid property deals off costly and time-wasting litigations, Mr Kamuto said, the ministry is instituting a dispute resolution mechanism.

 “The dispute resolution tribunal will have representatives from all the relevant departments in land administration and will be presided over by a judicial officer of the rank of a judge. The disputes will be settled efficiently and within the shortest time possible. You will be going to court to only to  appeal if not satisfied with the tribunal’s judgement,” he said.

 To make the whole transition more understandable to the public, the ministry will be publishing all transactions concluded or pending every six months.

For all properties that the government intends to acquire for its development agenda, compensation will be made efficiently and quickly.

The government anticipates that the reformed property market will result in increased growth in industrialisation and the commercial economy, which will  in turn, lead to the value of land going up.