Madam Speaker,
Today, as we table the Land Adjudication Bill 2025 and the Land Registration Bill 2025, we are one step closer to introducing major land reforms to The Bahamas.
This has been a long time in the making.
For far too many years, we have allowed this issue to linger as properties throughout our nation have existed without clear titles, leading to disputes, making businesses hesitant to expand and investors reluctant to build on land without clear titles.
Throughout the years, many people have given up on the fight for their land because they lack the funds to win the case in court.
It’s no secret that those with deep pockets supported by clever attorneys have figured out ways to influence outcomes in their favour by taking advantage of the broken, chaotic system.
We are putting an end to this great injustice.
The Bills we are tabling today represent meaningful progress in our quest to create more just outcomes for Bahamians when it comes to land ownership.
The Land Adjudication Bill 2025 will introduce an adjudication process to officially determine ownership of disputed land. A qualified Adjudicator supported by assessors, demarcators, and records officers, will visit communities, mark boundaries, hear claims, examine evidence, and resolve disputes through a fair Land Tribunal process.
This will fully determine ownership claims and allow for the land to be properly registered with clarity.
The registration of land will be facilitated by the Registered Land Act 2025, which establishes a modern Land Registry where every parcel of land gets a unique identification number. Owners will then be issued certificates representing definitive proof of ownership.
When these Bills are debated, passed, and implemented, we will have Land Adjudicators officially clarifying ownership rights once and for all, as well as Land Tribunals hearing disputes and making fair decisions based on the facts.
We will bring clarity to the registration of land, creating one official record that is set in stone as we move from a deed-based system to a modern, title-based system.
This means no more overlapping claims; no more uncertainty of ownership that lasts for years; and no more landowners stuck in limbo unable to sell, transfer, or get a mortgage because of disputed land.
We will replace the broken system with a new framework that promotes security and confidence, allows for greater access to information through public searches of land records, grants unimpeded access to credit on formerly disputed land, and solves ongoing land disputes.
Mortgages and property sales will be processed faster. Developments will move forward with certainty. Parents will confidently pass land on to their children. And inheritance disputes can finally be resolved fairly.
This reform is a mandatory step in the direction of fairness and justice. The longer we delay, the more people are harmed by the injustices of our broken system.
We must now expedite this process.
Bahamians have been crying out for land reform since the 1960s. That is when the first White Paper on reforms was produced.
I can’t imagine the authors of that White Paper believed that we would still be facing the same issues as a nation in 2025.
That is unacceptable.
While we can’t change the exorbitant amount of time it has taken successive administrations to take real action on land reforms, what we can do is commit to changing the status quo to create a fair system for everyone.
We will choose action where our predecessors chose inaction.
In doing so, we will help Bahamian families to safeguard their inheritance; help businesses to expand without worry that someday they will lose their property; and help investors to make decisions with assurance that the land they will build their enterprises on will not create future issues.
I’m sure anyone who has been caught up in a land dispute in our court system welcomes this change.
Madam Speaker,
We have consulted widely to ensure we have the best version of these Bills before us today.
I thank the Attorney General’s Office, the Land Reform Committee, and the many stakeholders who supported our work to bring us to this point.
Now that Land reform is imminent, we must keep the momentum going as we prepare to debate these two Bills in this House.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
After all these years of waiting, the Bahamian people deserve for these reforms to become a reality as soon as possible.
We are fully committed to ensuring that happens.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.