Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography to publicize information about underutilized land plots by Feb. 1, 2014, RIA Novosti reported.
Some of the properties, such as large parcels belonging to the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, are "not used in the best way," Medvedev said Friday at a meeting on effective land management. Putting these land plots on a public map will help to improve how they are used and increase trust among market players, he added.
"The procedure of forming and providing [information on] parcels of land should be clear, simple and not excessively bureaucratic," Medvedev said, Expert Online reported. "Officials who don't follow these procedures should bear clear responsibility."
The prime minister said that although there was a lot of available land in the country, there were not enough plots that could be used for residential housing construction at reasonable prices, RBC Daily reported.
Experts estimate that publicizing information about empty land plots will give developers more chances to buy land from private owners or lease it from the state. Prices for land could also go down given the increased supply on the market.
However, experts also doubted whether the order would be carried out in full.
The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography was created in 2009 to register ownership rights on real estate and record information on market deals. The cadastre map was first published in March 2012 and is currently undergoing revisions in anticipation of the new unified property tax, which the State Duma is expected to approve before the year's end.
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