Short answer. Not just anyone. The Registry of Property is public, but the Civil Code opens its books to those who have a known interest in ascertaining the status of the land or the real rights annotated there. Idle curiosity is not that interest; a genuine stake in the property is.
What the law says
The books in the Registry of Property shall be public for those who have a known interest in ascertaining the status of the immovables or real rights annotated or inscribed therein.
Civil Code, Article 710 — Registry Books Are Public. Read the full provision →
Public, but not a free-for-all
The rule says the registry books shall be public for those who have a known interest in ascertaining the status of the immovables or real rights annotated or inscribed therein. Read the whole sentence, not just the word "public." Access is tied to a purpose: knowing the status of a specific property or a right recorded against it. The point of the registry is to warn the world about who owns land and what claims sit on it, so anyone whose dealings depend on that information can look. What the provision does not do is turn the registry into an open database for browsing strangers' holdings out of curiosity.
What counts as a known interest
A known interest is usually easy to recognise in real life. A buyer checking a title before paying, a lender deciding whether to accept land as security, an heir tracing what a decedent owned, a neighbour worried about an encroaching claim, or a creditor looking for property to answer a judgment all have a real stake in the status of the land. The interest need not be ownership; it is enough that the person's rights or plans genuinely turn on what the record shows. The registrar is entitled to expect that the person asking has some such reason, rather than a wish to snoop into another's affairs.
Why the law draws the line this way
Land records reveal a great deal — who owns what, what mortgages or liens burden it, and often the price and terms of past deals. Making that fully open to everyone would expose owners to harassment and to people mining the records for reasons that have nothing to do with any transaction. Tying access to a known interest lets the registry do its warning job for those who need it while keeping a measure of protection for owners. It also fits the wider design of the property registration system, where entries are meant to bind and inform persons dealing with the land, not to satisfy the curious.
If you are refused, or need certified copies
In practice, someone with a plain stake in a property rarely has trouble examining the record or obtaining a certified copy for use in a transaction or a case. If access is refused and you believe your interest is genuine, be ready to explain that interest concretely — the deal you are entering, the claim you hold, the estate you are settling. Where a dispute over the land is looming, a certified copy of the current entries is often the first document a lawyer will want, because it fixes what the public record actually says on the date you obtained it. If you are being stonewalled, take the specifics to counsel.