Icelandic Property Registry
Iceland Property Registry was established as a government agency in 1976 under the Ministry of Finance. Iceland Property Registry is responsible for valuation of property for taxation purposes as well as the valuation for compulsory domestic fire insurance.Iceland Property Registry is responsible for collecting, processing, storing and publishing real estate data such as market data, which is used by central and local government institutions, real estate brokers and the financial sector. Iceland Property Registry analyses and publishes data on the real estate market, based on registered property sales data, which have been collected since 1980.
Sale prices and methods of payment from every sale contract are collected into the Land Registry Database and used for the calculation of economic indicators, such as the real estate price index.
Iceland Property Registry created and maintains the Land Registry Database, which is a centralised data collection system and information source for all land and real estate data.
Property Registry Database
Iceland Property Registry is the custodian of the The Property Registry Database, which is the central framework for all real estate data in Iceland.
The Property Registry Database consists of four parts: Title and Interests, as well as Base, Building and Valuation. The Base section contains primary data concerning real property, such as names, identifiers, location and boundaries. The Building section contains detailed descriptions of buildings as units, according to ownership and use. The Valuation section contains the results of valuation, both for taxation and fire insurance. The Title and Interests section lists the respective right holders for land and buildings.
The Property Registry Database is created by the merger of existing property databases, along with the real property valuation registry, and the local paper based title and mortgage registries. The cadastre is based on the legal framework of certified surveyors and cadastral legislation for the determination of property boundaries. Further developments of the Database include the creation of a multipurpose cadastre.
Digital Base Maps from the National Land Survey of Iceland, and unique identifiers for all land parcels in the Property Registry Database, provide the basis of the Icelandic Cadastre. The cadastre will provide the basis for value added products in derivative public and private databases.
Registration
Detailed registration of real estate in Iceland contributes to efficient land and housing administration, ensuring the legal status of individual real estate units, such as apartments in condominiums.
A coordinated registration process, with a countrywide collaboration of municipal planning and building authorities as well as local district commissioners, ensures that all data regarding real properties is collected only once into a central database. With the adoption of the Property Registry Database, all relevant governmental and local authorities for real property development and registration now register and process their land use and building data centrally.