Azernews.Az

The reforms implemented in Azerbaijan over the past few years in the area of registration of property are yielding tangible results. The real estate registration system in the country is considered the most advanced among the ten indicators based on which the World Bank estimated the business climate in the world in its 2013 Doing Business report.

According to the index, Azerbaijan has retained its place in the top ten, ranking ninth among 185 countries.

Facilitation of relevant procedures played the key role in this success as it contributed to the change in Azerbaijani legislation -- the introduction of new tariffs for expedited review and issuance of documents confirming the right to own property.

The fixed amount of state duty for registration of property rights established in 2009 makes up an average of 0.5 percent of the property value, while in other countries the figure is 3-5 percent.

Structural reforms in the public authorities responsible for the sector were carried out to ensure efficiency of work. As a result, the State Property Committee was established in 2009 on the basis of the Azerbaijani State Committee on State Property Management. In addition, the State Real Estate Register Service of Azerbaijan was abolished and Estate Register Service of the State Committee for Property Issues was set up on its basis.

Creation of a single registry of real estate transactions has reduced the number of procedures to register property from seven to four. Two out of these four procedures were accelerated, which allowed registration of property within 11 days. For comparison's sake, the procedure is twice as long in the countries of Central Asia and Europe.

The ease of registering property in Azerbaijan is shown in the table below.

The effectiveness of these reforms was immediately reflected in the statistics on property registration. Thus, according to Azerbaijan's State Committee on Property Issues, more than 147,000 properties were registered in 2011.

Work on electronic registration of real estate in Azerbaijan is currently carried out to improve the registration system of property rights. A digital map of a unified real estate cadastre is being created across the country and the database is transferred to electronic form. This allows citizens to receive comprehensive services online, without having to visit relevant government agencies, which will further reduce the time and number of procedures in this area.

The recognition of Azerbaijan's leadership in this sector by international institutions is essential. This report is an important document for many major investors in the world in identifying new areas for their investments. In many ways, it is used while making decisions on investments in a country, in particular in the non-oil sector, which is very important for Azerbaijan.