Exploring the relation between transparency of land administration and land markets: Case study of Turkey

Land is a scarce resource, and has a big share in the economic and social life of both developing and developed countries. Efficiently operating land markets are vital in the development of countries. Information unavailability is one of the most crucial differences between land and other markets, which can lead to asymmetrical information among various parties. Land administration systems contain a vast amount of data regarding attributes of land and land markets, and the transparency of these systems control the efficiency of the land markets’ operation. A case study from Turkey is presented in this study, exploring the relationship between transparency and efficiency. The transparency level of land administration functions has been increasing in Turkey concurrently with the evolution of its land market. However, the transparency level of value, use and development functions of land administration should be increased in order to improve the market efficiency. For the land tenure function, it is proposed
that data kept in information systems should be distinguished as information associated with land, with persons, and spatial data in order to achieve a balance between personal data protection and transparency level. The transparency level of the land tenure information in Turkey should be re-evaluated based on this classification.