How do you value unregistered lands and properties? Land experts speak out

A team of twenty-five land experts drawn from academia and practicing professionals from all over the world held an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) in Sounio, Greece, 15-16 September 2016, to design the most fit for purpose methodologies in valuing unregistered lands and properties. The meeting, co-organized by UN-Habitat through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) and International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), sought to develop a robust tool for the valuation of unregistered lands and properties that can benefit vulnerable groups and support the operationalization of the continuum of land rights framework.

Participants at the meeting

This initiative supports the principles in the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests and other relevant global frameworks. It seeks to facilitate the establishment of due diligence approaches in which practitioners and valuers can both value, and be seen to value, unregistered lands and properties up to internationally recognized professional standards as far as it is practicable. The EGM was attended by participants from 17 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, Ghana, Greece, Kenya, Mongolia, Philippines, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, UK, Uganda and USA. The meeting is a culmination of meetings and studies that recognized the need to accommodate ‘the continuum of land rights’ in the valuation process. The inputs from these experts meeting will facilitate the publication of a guide in early 2017.