People can now electronically access 60% of cadastral maps

Prague - People can now find current data on the state of the Czech land registry online for more than 60 percent of cadastral maps. Exactly that many were digitized by the end of 2011. A year earlier, it was about 53 percent of the maps. Karel Večeře, the chairman of the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre (ČÚZK), said this today to ČTK.
     There are a total of 13,027 cadastral territories in the Czech Republic. The territories whose maps have not yet been digitized by officials are covered by scanned cadastral maps. Compared to digital maps, they do not allow displaying the current state of the land registry online.
     The entire digitization is expected to be completed by 2017, according to previous information from ČÚZK. This is a later deadline than originally planned. The delay in digitization was caused by government austerity measures.
     In recent years, digitization has mainly focused on cadastral maps in urban areas and larger municipalities. According to the annual report, there are usually higher quality materials available there, more transactions occur in the real estate market, and development plans are being realized.
     Most of the information was provided electronically by the cadastral offices last year, thus reinforcing the trend of previous years, said the head of ČÚZK. "The shift of those interested in information to electronic form is absolutely evident; in a few years, almost all information will be provided electronically," noted Večeře.
     From the New Year, a bill that increased the fee for registration in the cadastral registry from 500 crowns to 1000 crowns came into effect. In this regard, according to the chairman of ČÚZK, twice as many people visited the cadastral offices in December as usual. Therefore, it took officials longer to process the requests. However, the situation has now calmed down, and registration in the cadastral registry usually takes two to three weeks.