The newly-elected chair of the Bahamas Bar Association’s real estate division has vowed to use her post to address what she described as “an urgent need for land reform”.

Sharlyn R Smith, senior partner at Sharon Wilson & Company, who moved up from her previous post as the Bar’s real estate vice-chairman, added that “land administration” will also be a priority during her tenure.

A long-time advocate of land reform, including the creation of a land registration system, Mrs Smith said: “We have not had any comprehensive changes in the laws related to the transfer of real property in over 100 years.

“We have had laws relating to condominiums and timeshare, but we have not addressed the fundamental way in which we transfer real property rights in The Bahamas. Sometimes a buyer feels like she has to be an athlete to complete the journey of purchasing a single-family residence or duplex. It is not anyone’s intention to make it difficult, but remedying it is a matter of updating antiquated parts of the system and improving on land administration.”

“There are many factors that impact land administration,” added Mrs Smith, who has served on multiple public and private boards dealing with such matters. “I am eager to use this term to help facilitate improvements to the efficiency of land administration while addressing the need for modern land legislation. We would like to make property transactions less burdensome and property rights more secure.”

The road to change, she said, will involve reaching out to numerous stakeholders including the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA), Central Bank of The Bahamas, Department of Inland Revenue and the Supreme Court civil registry.

“We in many ways are a sophisticated international financial centre, and yet for some reason our land laws have not kept pace. Attempts to gain information to complete a document or transaction are more challenging than they need to be so I’m excited about the changes I believe we at the Bar Association can help to bring about,” Mrs Smith said.

She has twice addressed the Bahamas Business Outlook on matters related to land, sat on numerous panels related to land matters, and was appointed to chair a private sector committee to review practices at the Registrar General’s department. Mrs Smith has served on the advisory committee on the ease of doing business, and was a government consultant on the Planning and Subdivision Bill.

“There are issues related to the transfer of property that I believe we can remedy,” she added. “My goal will be to make it less burdensome to transfer land and to improve the state of landholding, and thus contribute to national development.”

Mrs Smith is also vice-chairman of the Catholic Board of Education, president of The Nassau Chapter of Links Incorporated, and has served as a former director of Marathon Bahamas and The Bahamas AIDS Foundation. She will remain chair of the Bar Association real estate committee until summer 2020.