Property rights and private sector: for the poor, a global perspective.

1. International Real Estate Federation www.fiabci.com Property rights and private sector:for the poor, a global perspective. by Enrico Campagnoli, International Real Estate Federation representative at UNECE The third UNECE/REAG Land for Development Programme (LFDP) Forum Tempio di Adriano, Piazza di Pietra, Rome, Italy - 13-14 December 2004

2. The International Real Estate Federation is a 52 years old NGO, UN accredited, present in 50 countries, really international e multidisciplinary, involving all the Real Estate actors ( brokers, appraisers, counselors, financiers, academic institutions, lawyers, architects, developers, contractors, investors, etc). With its representatives accredited in all the five ECOSOC regions, FIABCI acts in a global perspective. FIABCI is traditionally representative of private sector.

3. The International Real Estate Federation, as representative of private sector, strongly supported and supports world wide property rights, in developed and undeveloped countries.

4. “ Blue Book on Property Rights” on the basis of decisions of FIABCI Houston World Congress, May 2004, will be published by FIABCI next year, with a world wide analysis of the property rights restrictions and their impact on: • the R.E. national markets • the foreign investment index • the percentage of participation of R.E. to GDP

5. International Real Estate Federation To reach the Millennium Declaration Goal, this presentation is focused on property rights for the poor in a global perspective, on “basic” property rights, as starting point to create or to improve the efficiency of national real estate markets.

6. International Real Estate Federation The existence of “basic” property rights essentially depend on: • the existence of a property (title registration, cadastre, etc) • the constitutional and legal right to own and to use (to buy, to sell, to rent, to finance, etc ) a property • a minimal political stability • a reasonable safety • a acceptable legal framework and court system that allows to exercise the constitutional and legal right to own and use the property. • a minimal national financial infrastructure • the existence of the professionals with the experience needed to own and to use (to rent, to buy, to sell, to manage, to finance, etc) a property • a reasonable transparency

7. International Real Estate Federation “Basic” property rights are the key point to reach the Millennium Declaration Goal on poverty reduction, in many countries across the world, as they: • are a condition necessary, but not always sufficient, for the existence of a real estate market. • are the key point for private and public partnership in cooperation with UN agencies. • are the key point generally for private sector’s investors and specially for private sector’s foreign investors.

8. International Real Estate Federation Private sector, property rights, risk and R.E. rating Also if this presentation is focused on “basic” property rights, it is clear that generally the private sector with Real Estate rating evaluates very carefully the level of the risk of an RE investment. The level of severity of property rights restriction in a country influences deeply the rating. The rating influences deeply the investments, as, in the global fluidity of the capitals, the investors prefer to go where the return is higher and the risk (the rating) is lower. The economical impact of property rights for a country is out of discussion now. It will be with the implementation of Basle agreement more evident.

9. International Real Estate Federation To increment property rights what we did and we are doing? • GHF - We promote property rights for the poor with Global Housing Foundation • Award -We stimulate the competition among private sector actors in slums improvement and urban renewal with a Wall Street Journal sponsored award • Ideas- We support ideas. For exemplum,we participated to open a debate on Hernando de Sotho ideas inside UN, organizing in UN in NY inside Istambul+5 on April 2001 an event with his participation

10. International Real Estate Federation GLOBAL HOUSING FOUNDATION acts in slums improvement and urban renewal and promotes property rights for the poor: • builds affordable houses for the poor with private donations • gives houses in ownership, with property title and sustainable mortgage, mostly to women • incoming money from mortgages finances new houses

12. International Real Estate Federation

13. International Real Estate Federation We stimulate the competition among private sector actors in slums improvement and urban renewal with a Wall Street Journal sponsored award. In 2004 a new award, a new category of “Prix d’Exellence” , entitled “René Frank award for slums improvement and urban renewal”, has been instituted by FIABCI. The competition is sponsored by Wall Street Journal.

15. International Real Estate Federation We proposed to debate and supported ideas Hernando de Sotho idea, during September 2001, few months after the debate opened in April 2001 in NY during Istambul+5, became the leading idea in Europe of UNECE/REAG to help and improve the economies of countries in transition.

16. International Real Estate Federation What we can propose now to try to achieve the Millennium Declaration Goal? The target : try to increase world wide the GDP of poor nations helping them to create an efficient RE market.

17. International Real Estate Federation How to achieve the target? Proposing to next ECOSOC Council in Geneva on July 2005, - to promote the organization of bodies and working groups similar to those existing in UNECE , with the support of NGOs and all the RE actors, in the other four ECOSOC regional Commissions. - to share with them the experience and the knowledge existing in UNECE and in NGOs and all RE actors.

18. International Real Estate Federation . For exemplum, it will be helpful if these activities will be extended world wide, also with all the modifications that regional Commissions would like to do: • property rights restrictions analysis, on the basis of what has been done by UN-ECE WPLA • country profile with the methodology similar to what used by UN-ECE Committee on Human Settlement. • Guidelines similar to those are existing or in preparation in UN-ECE, on social housing, on financial, on condominium, etc. • Cadastre methodologies, RE professions rules and laws, etc, as they have been developed in UN-ECE

19. International Real Estate Federation If there are property rights, there are also property responsibilities, specially for private sector. Private Sector could assumes its own responsibility to propose trough the ECOSOC Regional representatives the organization of Regional UN-REAG and others regional bodies and working groups, but it will be the cooperation among all the actors in UN, the UN agencies, the national governments and the NGOs the key of the success , a powerful tool-kit to achieve the Millennium Declaration Goal