THE Government is seeking to expand land titling, but the National Land Agency (NLA) says a shortage of commissioned land surveyors is hampering those efforts, with Commissioner of Lands Cheriese Walcott disclosing that the agency has only eight to meet the demand.

Walcott, who is also chief executive officer of the NLA, told the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) on Wednesday that the agency’s Survey Division has 150 members of staff, but only about eight commissioned land surveyors.

She said the shortage is affecting the agency’s ability to expand systematic registration, a Government-funded programme through which the NLA identifies owners of properties in informal settlements, surveys the parcels, and moves them toward formal titles.

“That impacts our ability to upscale the programme. So systematic registration from a legislative standpoint, and from a practical standpoint, works. It is the better way to title, but it requires funding, and requires an increased capacity for surveying the parcels quickly,” she noted.

Under the programme, teams go into communities and investigate properties on a parcel-by-parcel basis, determine who is occupying or claiming ownership of the land, and have the properties surveyed before the titling process advances.

Walcott said the programme, which began in 2021 following amendments to legislation that created the Land Administration and Management Programme, is fully funded by Government. Under the arrangement, the Government initially pays for the work and the cost is subsequently charged to the property.

Since 2021, she said the average cost has been about $134,000 per parcel, although that figure is subject to change based on property values and increases in surveying fees.

The NLA is now looking to expand its capacity through training and technology, including a project being developed in partnership with the Korean Government.

According to Walcott, the Land Administration Capacity Enhancing Project includes the development of a surveying school, with the agency also looking at geographical information systems, drone technology and training for technicians.

“So for the 25 years NLA has been around, we have really focused on checking the plans and doing the private work and doing the surveying of Crown lands. This school allows us to expand the capacity to train. When you look at how NLA has expanded over the years, we were training four to six surveyors and looking at a handful of students. This school gives the capacity to at least take on 25 to 40 students in a given cohort to expand capacity,” she explained.

Walcott also told the committee that Jamaica has about 400 land settlements across the island. While the NLA maintains a database of those settlements and their lots, Walcott said it does not yet have a list of every lot currently available because some previously allotted lots may have been abandoned or may have to go through a forfeiture process before being offered again.

Another challenge is the passage of property through generations without formal titles, which can create complicated estate matters.

Walcott said systematic registration is intended to address some of those problems by identifying ownership on the ground and progressing properties towards registration.