The economic success of all countries is determined by the availability and judicious use of the four essential national assets: Food, energy resources, land and human capital. The Bahamas has an abundance of all of these assets, but we have not availed ourselves or made the best use of them. Here I wish to focus on our land assets: Crown land, generation property and land registration.
1. The term "Crown land" needs to be changed to "state land", as this land belongs to the Bahamian people and not the Crown in England.
2. All state land should be recognized as residential, commercial, industrial, touristic, farmland, wetlands and forestry.
3. All state land should then be placed in a national land bureau that would be mandated by government, but managed by the private sector in a fair and transparent way.
4. The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC) and the Bahamas Development Bank (BDB) would then be recapitalized with funds from the government, the National Insurance Board, pension funds and the private sector. It would also be necessary to repopulate the management and board of directors of each of these financial institutions with a team of qualified and accountable persons. These two entities would then become the primary lending facilities for persons desirous of purchasing a piece of state land.
The BMC would be responsible for funding residential purchases at a rate of three to five percent interest and the BDB for all other non-residential purchases (commercial, industrial and touristic), but at a higher rate of interest (five to seven percent) because of the greater risk involved. No land zoned forestry or wetlands would be sold and any farmland would only be leased. Foreign entities would be prohibited from buying any land earmarked for tourism but, where appropriate, would be able to lease the land on a long term basis.
I am of the opinion that if this approach was to be adopted, then the best use could be made of what Crown/state land is still available and the procurement process would be fair and transparent.
At present, all of the Crown/state land is controlled by the Office of the Prime Minister. This office single handedly determines the distribution of all Crown/state land. There is never any public disclosure of these transactions, the criteria used in the allocation process, the current status of how much land is available, who the current lease holders are, whether or not the land is being used for its intended purpose and if the current lease holders are up to date on their payments.
Such an opaque system lends itself to abuse, corruption and nepotism.
This new approach would provide the opportunity for many Bahamians to purchase land relatively inexpensively. They would then have a chance to own a piece of the rock and build a home. This creates economic activity in the form of mortgage payments, construction, jobs, sale of household goods, real property taxes and utility bill payments.
Another positive economic impact of this approach would be increased competition in the banking system for mortgages, which would result in lower mortgage payments and thus more disposable income for other mortgagees, which would result in more economic activity in the country.
There are acres and acres of generation property all over The Bahamas, especially in The Family Islands. There is no reason why this land cannot be regularized and the rightful owners be granted clear title to their properties. There are commonage laws that could be used to rectify this situation and if additional laws are needed then they could be enacted. Granted, this would be an arduous task. And yes there would be many disputes. But it needs to be sorted out. Once this problem is resolved there would be hundreds of new Family Island millionaires, who would then have access to land, which they would be able to sell, build on or use as collateral for whatever purpose.
The transaction costs (stamp duty, realty fees and legal fees) associated with the sale/purchase of land are too high and are a deterrent to any potential land sales.
The present arrangement adds to the overall structural inflation that all Bahamians must endure. The legal profession justifies its fee structure based on the time and effort it takes to do the relevant title search and the potential for litigation if there are any problems. The simple solution to this is to adopt a system of land registration which would reduce the time required for the search, the chance of litigation and the cost of legal fees. Stamp duty, legal fees and realty fees would be based on a flat rate that would range between $250 to $1,000 per transaction, depending on the value. This scenario would result in a win-win situation for all parties, as there would be an increase in the number of real estate transactions. Any income lost on the swing would be gained on the roundabout.
Such land reform would benefit all Bahamians, the government and the Bahamian economy. After all, economics is about making the best use of available resources and land is certainly one of these resources.

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