Authorisation of notary publics on real property transactions in relation to the Turkish land registry system based on “Cadastre 2014 vision”

The International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) has globally influenced land administration through its Cadastre 2014 vision and subsequent LADM standards. Türkiye has been modernizing its land registry and cadastre system accordingly. The General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre (GDLRC) manages approximately 17 million annual transactions, including about 3.4 million conveyancing (long-term averages). To reduce congestion in Land Registry Offices (LROs), notaries were authorized to issue sales contracts in June 2022. This study investigates the effects of this change within the Cadastre 2014/2034 framework in terms of the maturity of the Turkish Land Administration System (LAS) and also by linking the issue to broader debates within land management and governance. A survey of 140 GDLRC experts revealed that notary involvement currently offers limited time and financial benefits to citizens and does not significantly reduce LRO workload. The central factor for this limitation is evaluated to be the maturity of Turkish LAS. On the other hand, the initiative aligns with Cadastre 2014’s fifth statement, which advocates public-private collaboration, and therefore it should be further evolved. Within this evolution, administrative/managerial fixes and training programmes for notaries in the short term, management of all internal and external RRRs via LAS as a spatial data infrastructure service in line with LADM standards in the medium term, and betterment of institutional coordination, public responsibility development and capacity building in the long term are proposed for a better eventual land administration and management towards local and national good land governance.