Land governance in transition: the case of the Hellenic Cadastre

The commencement of the development of the Hellenic Cadastre System (HCS) in 1995 aimed to introduce a new land conveyancing system, comprised of a land registry and cadastre part. The new system, which was designed at the cutting edge of the geo-information technology, would replace the existing paper and person based deed system, the Registrations and Mortgages System (RMS), which was introduced in Greece, in 1836. After 24 years, the HCS is operating for almost one-third of the country’s total property rights. Furthermore, in the current time, the bulk of cadastral surveying, forest mapping and land registration projects are in progress in 84.6% of the country’s area (62.2% of total property rights), while the milestone for the completion of the Cadastre has been set to June 2021.