A closer look at Turkish cadastre and its successful completion

Land underpins most social, economic and an environmental activity, because of this, there was an urgent need in Turkey for the completion of a cadastre to be used by government decision-makers, landowners and real estate practitioners. For many years technical, financial, and social problems affected the execution of many land-related projects in Turkey. In 2005, a land cadastre project was designed, called Cadastre Completion Project and implemented over the following three years. This paper presents a review of the Turkish cadastral system in terms of its administration, technical, and organizational structure followed by a critical analysis of the design and development of the Cadastre Completion Project. Findings in this paper draw upon project appraisal documents and data obtained from the cadastre institutions specifically looking at the relationship between the quality and completion of Turkey’s cadastre. Value for Money assessment of the Project is based on a financing model that included costs for surveying the land parcels, the quantity of work, cost recovery, the participation of the private sector, and land disputes. This review demonstrated that the technical execution of the cadastre, undertaken by the private sector speeded up the project and, contrary to general beliefs, it reduced costs. Further, that the cadastre investment could be recovered within approximately 20 years as a result of revolving fund enterprise revenues, noting this excludes taxes and duties paid to the state. Furthermore, the revolving fund could also be a serious resource for corporate finance. Thus, the Cadastre Completion Project highlights the importance of international finance institutions, that do play a significant role in realizing such a large-size cadastre project as described in this paper.