Landowners’ perceptions towards the success of land title registration in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Recording information on land is a crucial factor for a country to maintain its wealth. Among different registration methods, the title registration system has been identified as the most acceptable, efficient, widely used,and secured system in the world. Sri Lanka introduced the title registration system in 1998 in selected areas of the country, but it is still less popular and shows low progress. Hence, there is a question on the success of the program .Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the factors that affect towards the slow progress and the disfavour in land title registration system in Sri Lanka. The perceptions of the landowners’ who dealt with the new system were surveyed through a questionnaire prepared on pre-identified criteria. The results revealed that, the factors that were unfavourable and demote the success of the land title registration were related to the awareness, the trust, the trustworthiness and the access to information. Hence, it can be concluded that the landowners possess little knowledge onthe benefits of the program and felt uncertainty about the system. The policies should be formulated to improve the efficiency of the program by enhancing the awareness of the landowners to strengthen the trustfulness of the title registration process in Sri Lanka.