Government works to improve notarial services The Cabinet of Ministers has approved draft amendment to Law of Ukraine "On

nota rial system" and "On state registration of title to real estate and its burdens. " According to experts of Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the government wants to improve quality and accessibility of the state registration of real estate trans actions. Experts recommend extending grants of authority to notaries and giving them right to make changes in the State Register of real estate titles, as well as to issue deeds along with the state registrars. Experts from the Association of Realtors of Ukraine say the situation was is som ewhat paradoxical. On the one hand, notaries act conditionally as state registra rs and may register titles, as well as make changes in the State Register.They ma y also provide information from the State Register, but onlywhen registering rea l estate titles and construction sites. In all other cases, individuals and lega l entities that want to obtain information from the State Register must apply ex clusively to a state registrar. As a result, by August 1, 2013 the state registrars had received almost 422,000 requests for information from the State Register.That led to long queues and poor quality of state registration services. According to experts, enabling notaries to provide information from the State Re gister, which normally is provided by state registrars, will help dramatically r educe the waiting time to receive the necessary paperwork. New real estate registration rules have already accelerated the purchase certifi cation process and boosted the real estate market in the first half of 2013, say real estate brokers, adding that dynamism returned to the real estate market in 2013 because paperwork preparation fpr real estate deals became less time consu ming.Buyers in 2012 had to wait one to two months after handing over of a down pa yment. Today, the entire process can be completed in a week. Most real estate tr ansactions can be finalized within 1 to 2 weeks, experts say. These positive changes resulted from a new real estate registration system intro duced on January 1, 2013. Previously, notaries only executed purchase agreements. Today, they also require d to verify ownership of the seller and register the title for the new owner. Th e responsibilities of notaries have also grown: they have become fully authorize d registrars for the deal they are certifying. As a result, the vast majority of real estate deals are now processed by notaries. During 2012 the Ukrainian notaries certified almost 266,000 purchase and sale ag reements for apartments and houses.The number of deals was up 4.5% year-on-year and up 18% against 2010.The real estate market in Ukraine continues to grow for t he second consecutive year. Notaries certified the following number of real estate agreements in 2012: in Ky iv 21,987 (in 2011 23,267), in Donetsk region 35,029(in 2011 32,992), in Dniprope trovsk region 24,103(in 2011 22,135), in Odessa region 12,704(in 2011 13,465), in Lviv region 9,488(in 2011 9,466), in Kharkiv region 22,592(in 2011 22,378). According to analysts, in the first half of 2013 the number of real estate deals in Kyiv is up 17%, year-on-year. Offset:the number of real estate deals in Kyiv is up 17% year-on-year.