Honduras Experience with Land Regularization in Urban and Peri Urban Areas Alain Paz PATH II - Honduras Land and Poverty Conference 2017: Scaling up Responsible Land Governance

Background Honduras is a country in Central America. Area: 112,492 km² Population: 8.73 million Parcels: ± 3.0 million 60% of parcels nationwide (2.2 million in urban and 0.8 million rural) have irregularities in their registry or their spatial description Adm. Division: 18 departments, 298 municipalities 45% of the population lives below the poverty line 20% lives in extreme poverty

2004 Property Law Mandates as national priority the regularization and settlement of conflicts over the possession and ownership of real estate, the incorporation of the same to the national cadastre, and the titling and registration in the real property registries. Declares that it is of public interest the regularization of real property in human settlements (colonias) established prior to December 31, 2010; and located in (a) land whose ownership cannot be established, or (b) land under dispute by third parties which do not have possession of the land. Any property title that is granted as a result of the regularization process and that benefits a family must be granted jointly to the spouses or domestic partnership.

Property Regularization based on Public Need A new mechanism for land regularization, defined as Property Regularization Based on Public Need (RINP) included in the 2004 Property Law. The RINP was specifically designed to address cases of neighborhoods (colonias) on land of "Private" legal nature. A critical issue for RINP was defining the eligibility criteria of the informal colonias. Currently, the criteria include: Existence of a human settlement and that its establishment has been given before December 31 of the year 2010. That the ownership of the property cannot be clearly established or that disputes with respect to domain between third parties not in possession of the property exist.

Implementation Experience RINP implementation was started at the end of 2004. To date, 216 colonias, have benefited from the RINP, including around 97,000 properties, of which 47% already have a registered property title. The Property Law created a new institution – The Property Institute, which consolidated cadastral, registry and regularization responsibilities. RINP was started on a massive scale under challenging factors: Critically, with an institution still in development, lacking in technical capacity Without the Regulations of the Property Law approved Initially, the program targeted 100 colonias located in the two largest and most important cities of the country: the capital city (Tegucigalpa) and the main industrial city (San Pedro Sula).  

Titles of Property by year Expropriated Colonias No. Department Expropriated Colonias Parcels Titles of Ownership % Titration 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 1 Francisco Morazán 73 43,571 25,130 57.68 611 1,490 6,516 3,019 3,399 2,870 1,471 1,315 1,844 606 1,100 885 4 2 Cortés 126 49,563 20,082 40.52 104 3,614 4,573 2,222 1,269 1,120 1,687 1,041 1,163 1,632 1,335 320 3 Yoro 7 2,154 98 4.55 6 82 Atlántida 1,493 108 7.23 5 Santa Bárbara 275 0.00 El Paraíso 67 Total 216 97,123 45,418 46.76 715 1,492 10,130 7,592 5,627 4,139 2,591 3,006 2,885 1,769 2,732 2,410 330 The years 2006, 2010 and 2014 highlighted in yellow represent the years of government transitions in the country.

Titles of Property by gender Expropriated Colonias No. Department Expropriated Colonias Parcels Titles of Ownership % Titling Man as owner % Woman as owner Couple as owners Legal Person as owner 1 Francisco Morazán 73 43,571 25,130 57.68 7,085 28.19 11,939 47.51 5,894 23.45 207 0.82 2 Cortés 126 49,563 20,082 40.52 9,121 45.42 9,903 49.31 815 4.06 272 1.35 3 Yoro 7 2,154 98 4.55 36 36.73 60 61.22 1.02 4 Atlántida 1,493 108 7.23 48 44.44 55.56 0.00 5 Santa Bárbara 275 6 El Paraíso 67 Total 216 97,123 45,418 46.76 16,290 35.87 21,962 48.36 6,710 14.77 480 1.06 In general, 63.13% of Titles of Ownership have favored women as sole proprietors or jointly (spouse). In the capital city (Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela) the percentage of titling in favor of women as sole owner or jointly amounts to 70.96%.

Formation of Administrative File Confirmation of Human Settlement and Definitios of Polygon Mediation Hearing Declaration of Expropriation Definition of Fair Valuation Cadastral Survey Trust Agreement

RINP process

Challenges and Lessons Learned After 12 years of implementation, RNIP continues to face major challenges that must be addressed in a comprehensive manner by the government: Weak institutional capacity. Citizen engagement. Realistic planning based on technical analysis. Clear definition of the Trust´s requirements and conditions. Cut off data for eligibility should be maintained. At first, the cutoff date was June 1, 1999, taking into account a people who were affected by Hurricane Mitch and had to settle in areas on the periphery of cities. This date was subsequently amended to December 31, 2006 and at the moment the date is set for December 31 of 2010. Housing deficit. Uneven participation of local governments. Participation of certified professionals for the provision of cadastral services.

Recommendations Identification of national and ejido lands, to promote massive and orderly regularization processes, based on municipal planning and territorial planning, discouraging and sanctioning the model of "speculative land invasions" that have become pervasive in the country. Implement a process of socialization to those beneficiaries who have not yet obtained their title because (a) they have not finished their obligation to pay for their property; or (b) they have not even approached the Regularization Committee to establish their commitment to pay. Once the beneficiaries have fulfilled their land’s payments commitment, their property titles should be issued and delivered expeditiously, minimizing waiting time.

Recommendations Human settlements in the process of regularization should be assisted by their municipalities to develop municipal planning and community development that help to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants. Establish co-execution agreements for agencies responsible for the process to ensure greater coordination and execution of activities. (IP, the General Directorate of National Assets Administration and municipalities). Establish a methodology and procedure for the definition of “fair valuation” with the objective of avoiding discretion. (valuation is based on the land at the moment of the establishmnet of the settlement which presents challenges in determining the land improvements retrospectively)

Thank you