Land Management LAVIMS
The Land Administration, Valuation and Information Management System (LAVIMS) project is an initiative by the Government of Mauritius designed to modernise land administration by greatly improving access to information.
The responsibility for LAVIMS is shared between the Ministry for Housing and Lands (MHL) and the Ministry for Finance and Economic Empowerment (MOFEE) and the implementation is being undertaken by a consortium of international and local companies led by Infoterra Ltd.
LAVIMS is really four sub-projects wrapped up in one. The four components are:
- Cadastre
- Deeds
- Valuation
- Information management.
Cadastre
The Cadastre is a map showing parcels of land in Mauritius, with each parcel identified by a Parcel Identification Number (PIN)
In LAVIMS, all important information on a parcel will be held digitally, including the transcription of the Deed and the Land Survey Plan
Part of the LAVIMS data delivery is a detailed and accurate coverage of new aerial imagery for the whole island, against which the land parcels can be located
Development of the cadastre, with its search capability, will improve land transactions, by making the work of the notaries, the Registrar General and the Survey Department easier, quicker and more certain.
Deeds
The Deeds component is converting millions of paper records in the Registrar General's Department to digital format.
This makes it easier to search for and recover information and document security is improved as more than one copy can be held in different locations.
LAVIMS will also continue the reform of deeds management, already started by the Registrar General, to produce a system that can be searched both by the name of the land owner and by the PIN
These changes will significantly speed-up the work of the notaries and the Registrar General's Department
Valuation
A fair land administration system requires that all properties should be surveyed and inventoried frequently enough to take account of changes in property markets
The LAVIMS Real Property Inventory will survey at least 350,000 properties, including all residential and commercial properties on the island
The inventory began in March 2009 and will continue until early 2010.
Information Management
LAVIMS will create and manage vast amounts of information and will use a dedicated Information Management System (IMS) to store and provide access to the data
Central to the IMS is the cadastre, which will identify every land parcel in Mauritius. Each land parcel will be linked to the deed that created it as well as any related deeds
Improved access to information will enable searches that now take days to be completed in a matter of minutes
These improvements to information management will make Mauritius one of the most efficient countries in the region with respect to land transactions.
