Trade body says Land Registry privatisation will ‘spook’ investors

The Land Registry is responsible for registering the ownership of land in England and Wales and currently holds around 24 million titles, which are legal certificates of land ownership.

The government announced plans to sell it off privately for about £1bn last month, but the move has drawn plenty of industry criticism.

The British Property Federation asserts that the security of title currently offered by Land Regsitry is a big draw for overseas investors in UK real estate.

Chief executive Melanie Leech said the Land Registry plays a crucial role in ensuring that real estate transactions are transparent and carried out smoothly.

“Our concern would be that in the rush to push through these proposals important questions about the quality of service do not get the airing they deserve,” she said.

“Should the government go ahead with privatisation, it is critical that incentives exist for a new operator to invest in service quality and to retain the Land Registry’s deep pool of legal expertise. The Land Registry is often taken for granted but its activities facilitate important and much-needed regeneration across the country.”

Richard Close, head of lease advisory at estate agent Daniel Watney, said a sell-off would threaten the Registry’s impartiality.

“The Land Registry is a respected institution largely because of its impartiality, a sell-off may put this under threat”, said Close.

“There may also be considerable knock-on effects for the wider market. The property industry already has many valuable private data sources, but passing the Registry into private hands would create an immediate market monopoly.”

The Competition and Markets Authority also said selling off the organisation would give the new owner a monopoly on commercially valuable data with no incentive to improve access to it.