Modernization of real estate registration in Brazil in light of the LADM: Advances and challenges for spatial land governance

Brazil has a vast territory and, for many years, lacked effective mechanisms to control propertytransfer and spatial land governance. The creation of the General Mortgage Registry in 1843represented the Brazilian state's first step toward legalizing property ownership, land control,and land security. This traditional registration model, although it has undergone modifications,remains in force today, but it presents significant limitations, particularly regarding thediscrepancy between the property information recorded in the registration and the reality foundon the ground. In recent years, initiatives have sought to align registry data with internationalland administration standards, notably the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM),established by ISO 19152:2012, recently updated to the ISO 19152-1:2024, -2:2025, -3:2024,-4:2025, and -5:2025 families. Notable in this context are the creation of the NationalRegistration Code (CNM) in 2023 and the establishment of the Geographic Information Systemof the Real Estate Registry (SIG-RI) in 2025, which resulted in the consolidation of theBrazilian Real Estate Registry Map platform, made available free of charge to the public. Thisarticle analyzes these initiatives, with an emphasis on the current stage of development andapplication of geotechnologies to the Brazilian Real Estate Registry, assessing how they alignwith the LADM model. The research is qualitative and exploratory in nature. The resultsindicate that these initiatives align with the fundamental principles of the LADM, such as theunique identification of parcels and the spatialization of properties through georeferencedpolygons, although they present weaknesses due to Brazil's vast territory and regionaltechnological inequalities. Although in the initial phase of consolidation, they have shownpromise for registry modernization and the strengthening of spatial land governance in Brazil,aligning with international standards.