Purpose: The aim of this paper is to establish whether or not the absence of secure property rights is a barrier to credit access amongst SMEsOriginality: Land registration has been heralded globally for its supposed ability to enhance investment through access to credit. It has been argued that the development of the advanced world is attributable to the fact that there is comprehensive registration of property; this stems from the argument that property registration is what makes them acceptable collateral that permits access to credit for business investment and economic growth. Though the advance world is often used as an example in making the arguments above empirical research on the topic is rare. Indeed in England a reasonable proportion of landed property remains unregistered.Methodology: The study involved credit officers who were purposively sampled from the various high street banks. Data was collected using self administered questionnaires and analysed descriptively using SPSS. Findings: the results amongst other things show that most formal lenders accept landed property for collateral purposes irrespective of whether they are registered or not. It is concluded as a result that even though land registration is important in facilitating the verification of land ownership and ensuring security, its absence is doesn’t hinder SMEs access to credit.