In the post-pandemic world, India is poised to be the only other major economy alongside China to grow and flourish. To get a step closer to this goal, India needs a standardized property rights system to solve its current land record-keeping conundrum.
A centralized land record system and reforms in land laws are thus the need of the hour – to ward off internal constraints, local agitations, and speculative increases in land prices. The GIS land bank system launched by the government recently is a potent step towards actualizing this clamour for change by addressing issues like transparency and credibility directly.
A slingshot to a better Real Estate future
Currently a pilot project, the National GIS-enabled land bank system is developed by integrating Industrial Information System (IIS) with the State GIS systems to create a one-stop window for obtaining central and state clearances and approvals, needed to kickstart business operations.
It is initially launched for six states that will map more than 3,300 industrial parks across 31 states and UTs covering a whopping 4,75,000 hectares of land. The GIS land bank system will eliminate the need to visit various offices and platforms for land information and obtain clearances, improve transparency in the land record maintenance system, make the acquisition of land easier for development projects and minimize the scope of land disputes.
This landmark land bank system will also push the approach of “One District One Product”, in line with the Atma Nirbhar Bharat vision, boost employment opportunities and attract investments from abroad by showcasing the improving ease-of-doing-business.
Deals and registration from anywhere
For the majority of Indian households, accessing land records and other details of encumbrances including mortgage, liability, or claim against a property, is often difficult. Investors too face the drudgery of visiting public land record departments and the Registrar’s office to verify land records and register land agreements.
With the arrival of the GIS-enabled one-stop digital land bank platform, land records would be just a click away and can be accessed from anywhere around the world, enabling seamless and credible property registrations online, doing away with the need of any authorized intermediary.
Extreme Transparency
Unclear land titles, and lack of transparency in real estate transactions due to opacity of land data and mismanagement, have made the real estate sector sluggish for long.
With the digitization of land records, a clear picture of land data, starting from the first owner of the land to its present status, including image of the property and landowner will be available. This will eradicate confusion between government land and private land, usher in transparency, and speed up land acquisition; the use of reliable digital land records will add considerable impetus for India’s rapid economic growth through better functioning of land markets and boost investment too.
Hallmark of a Developed Real estate Market
The digitization of land records will mark an epoch in the history of real estate and amplify the potential of the sector in India. The property sector which had for long been plagued by land issues that snowballed into complex litigations and disputes will breathe a sigh of relief at this renaissance.
GIS technology will help real estate professionals to evaluate sites, research parcels of land, strategize marketing plans, and optimize tenant management strategies. With the aid of information from multiple cloud databases, real estate developers can assess the value of a land parcel and speculate about its future developments.
What’s more, this fluidic, modern land records system provides access to powerful data, templates, and tools that leverage land records management and value analysis of a particular area. Using analytical capabilities of GIS, one can see year-on-year trends, do cost-per-square-foot comparisons, and do neighbourhood analysis on a single platform.
With 24/7 availability of data online, it will become easy for buyers and sellers to scrutinize property data online and check the authenticity of land or property. As further advances in technology add more firepower to the pilot GIS-enabled land records system, a full spectrum rollout in the near future will help organizations and decision-makers to gain a deeper understanding of property economics, make faster decisions and take advantages of property developments in the future – essentially, what we often call a ‘game changer’.
