Prospects for introducing a unified real estate identifier in Ukraine

The article addresses the problem of fragmented real estate identification in Ukraine and substantiates the need to move from a set of registry-specific keys to a unified identifier for real estate objects. The relevance of the topic follows from the fact that different public information systems currently describe the same legal and economic phenomenon through different primary keys: the State Land Cadastre uses the cadastral number of a land parcel, the State Register of Proprietary Rights uses the registration number of the object together with related attributes, the Unified State Electronic System in the Field of Construction uses its own construction object identifier, while the national address register is still being created and populated. The purpose of the study is to develop a legal and technical model of a unified identifier capable of ensuring an unambiguous link “land parcel – building or structure – building unit – address – rights and restrictions”. The methodological framework combines formal legal analysis, system-structural analysis, comparative legal method, logical-semantic analysis, and information modelling. The paper reconstructs the historical evolution of real estate identification in Ukraine and provides a detailed analysis of the structure of the cadastral number, the construction object identifier, address-related identifiers, and the registration number used in the rights register. It is demonstrated that the current interoperability model mostly transports data between registries but does not create a shared ontology of the object itself. A multi-level unified real estate identifier is proposed, rooted in the cadastral number of the land parcel and supplemented by special regimes for objects without a formed parcel and for complex multi-component objects. The scientific novelty lies in combining the spatial logic of cadastral zoning with life-cycle principles of digital identifiers. The practical significance of the proposed model lies in enabling end-to-end traceability of rights, restrictions, encumbrances, taxation, and management decisions in land administration, urban development, and state registration.Received: 28.04.2026;Accepted: 06.05.2026;