Susana Lastarria-Cornhiel, Grenville Barnes (1995):
Assessment of the Praedial Property Registration System in Peru

B. Failure to Formalize Possession Rights

One of the main objectives pursued by the ILD in the late 1980s and early 1990s was the formalization of possession rights (rights to property, occupied by the possessor, that are not legalized with a title document). Law 495 (1988) put into law the concept of possession rights and outlined new procedures for the registration of not only ownership rights, but also possession rights in the Registro Predial.

There is the perception among some government and banking personnel, as well as property owners, that the Registro Predial is less secure than the Registro de Propiedad Inmueble because it permits the registration of possession rights. Ironically, this was seen as a major innovation in the late 1980s when the Registro Predial was being conceived. At that time it was viewed as an essential mechanism for formalizing land rights and gaining access to mortgage capital. However, the number of possession rights registered in the Registro Predial has been minimal (only three transactions registering possession rights were processed) in the past five years, which suggests that this objective has not been achieved.