1. Land, land everywhere, but not a service to link: Land Policy and Urban Expansion in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
David Mason, Geoffrey Payne and Meskerem Brhane
World Bank, Geoffrey Payne and
Associates
March 24, 2014

2. Presentation Overview
Introduction and Context
Literature on Title and Tenure Security
Mongolia: Legal and Institutional Context
Urban Expansion and Market Distortions
Conclusion and Next Steps

3. Urbanization and Change in Mongolia
Large, scarcely populated
Most urbanized in EAP region
Market transition
Progressive land and shelter policy

4. The Benefits of Land Title
Property rights are an important component of economic growth
Land title and poverty alleviation
Limits to land title
Investment in land and housing independent of title
Title does not always influence collateralization
What else should be considered along with prior to land title?

5. Land Administration System
Three types of rights afforded to land
Possession rights (renewable)
Ownership rights
User rights (subject to frequent renewal)
UB residents allowed plot of up to 700m2 by law
Affordable, widely held by poor and ger area residents
Allocation of plots opaque

6. Challenges with current system
Availability of land has encouraged low-density growth
Large informal sales market in ger areas
System does not record sales prices or values
Fees and taxes associated with land are small and based on fixed values
Banks do not want to collateralize plots
Network infrastructure is incomplete and access drives market prices

7. Next Steps and Future Research
Considerations for financing infrastructure
Reform land valuation and taxation system
Tax apartments
Incremental upgrading and self-taxation/betterment districts
Ongoing research
Improving description of informal markets in ger areas
Estimating value gained through infrastructure connections