The challenges of getting land in urban Tanzania

Dar es Salaam. Real Estate activities are growing in the country, spreading out across town centres in most of the regions that have commercial activities including urban centres such as Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza, Mtwara and many others.

There have been spontaneous changes in the face of these cities as well as acquisition of new plots of land. Dotted with newly constructed buildings which cater for either residential or commercial purposes, the growth of new urban centres is a notable development.

Areas where these developments have taken place had other structures previously - albeit old - which were owned by a number of families.

Nevertheless, these new structures are located in urban centres in any region in the country. For those of you who have already invested in the Real Estate industry its easy to understand what I am about to speak about; for those who haven’t, we are just going to go through the road that directs us through all the procedures of acquiring land for urban purposes.

Kindly note that the procedures for allocation of urban land aim to maintain proper planning, to have proper structures with proper sizes which are built in properly allocated areas.

This makes the process a long one as, amongst the others, it shall include planning, surveying, compensation of the residents and issuance of the certificate of title in compliance with the town and country planning laws.

The process is also a threefold tier as it covers national, municipality and the household levels. As we go through the process, we shall be able to revisit the three-tier procedure, observe the assessments and compensation and finally the issuance of the certificate of title.

The laws governing this process include, but are not limited to, the Town and Country Planning Act, Land Acquisition Act No.47, and Land Act No.4 of 1994, Land Surveying Act, Local Government Urban Authority Act, Public Health Sewage and Drainage Act.

The allocation of land for the Urban Purposes takes the following stages:

The first procedure is to identify a suitable area depending on the demand (purpose) and availability. This normally involves the Town Planning section of the municipal office.

They are the ones responsible for identification of the area, observing the boundaries of the same and seeing if the said area fits the intended purpose.

This step also involves other authorities such as the Ten Cell leaders and ward executive officers.

At this stage there is the acquisition of the base map area, followed by its survey to observe if it is suitable for development purposes. If the answer is on the affirmative then it’s determined which kind of development can take place in the area.

It goes without saying that at this early stage the authorities prolong their observation to find out the number of people that may be affected.

In case the project is approved, the identification and observation will be reported to the Human Settlements department under the ministry of Land.

Declaration of the area and notification of property owners

This is usually done by the ministry of Land through an order that will be published in the Government Gazette. However, it is worth noting that this process on average would take around one year.

At this stage, the ministry will use other authorities such as ward executives and district commissioners to inform people at their zones that the area is under the planning commission and it has been dedicated to certain developments and that the government is in the process of acquiring the place for a public purpose in accordance to section 7 and 8 of the Land Acquisition Act.

This has been the subject of discussions in many land acquisition processes that take place in urban areas whereby strong resistance has been observed from the indigenous people of such areas.

However, before removing residents the government must arrange for compensation of all the people in the area specified for the upcoming project.

The land delivery office of the Land Development Service Division at the ministry of Lands must prepare a notice that declares the area to be a planned area.

This notice will bring the occupiers to estoppels from entering the conveyed area and this notice will be signed by the minister of Lands on behalf of the president.

Mostly, even without the use of the Ten Cell leaders, the occupier would know about the notice but then it should be sent for publication in the Government Gazette.

Valuation of existing interest in the declared planned area

Valuation of existing interest depends on the features that are found in the area.

For example, if there are any plants or crops they should also be included in the calculation for the compensation of the same. Every tree, crop or building in the area should all be marked. Based on the data collected for the evaluation, a compensation schedule shall be prepared.

This process of valuating is done with the Property and Valuation Agency at the ministry of Lands. At the end of the day the government chief valuer approves the compensation schedule.

The occupiers will be compensated in accordance to section 12 of the Land Acquisition Act. Sometimes the compensation may include disturbance allowance, depending on case by case circumstances.

The next step is the request for compensation funds for the implementation of the schedule.

This is normally done by the director of the Land Development Department making an application to treasury department. The request from the compensation department will then need to be authorized.

Thereafter, the director of the municipal council shall announce the availability of compensation and the municipality cashier shall arrange the payments for the same to be done.

There should be accompanying preparations for the detailed planning scheme which at the end of the day will be required to be approved.

The planning scheme will encompass all the relevant authorities of the concerned area; declare the planning schemes and the rest of the arrangements to be specifically defined.

The human settlement department at the ministry will distribute a copy of the plan to utility organisations such as Tanesco, TTCL and Dawasco. This aims to ensure that the relevant private and public authorities that may be affected are conversant with the planning scheme.

The survey and mapping unit will also come into play and in such circumstances will collectively provide a cadastral map of the same. This is a vital process as it will define the nature of the land at the planned area and what should come into place in the future.

The same ministry of Lands, through the land delivery officer, will take the initiate to advertise in the newspaper about the availability of the given plots in the surveyed area.

The practice has vindicated itself that in urban areas once the government has announced that there is availability of plots, it becomes a hustle.

Thus not every applicant will be able to be allocated the piece of land they have applied for. We may need more planned areas to support the growth the Real Estate industry.

Those few who get allocated plots will need to fill in the payment forms for the same, show the proof of payments and further evidence to be issued with a letter of offer. This will provide conditions for the development of the plot allocated to the individual.

After the letter of offer, the person allocated land will be waiting to be issued with the certificate of title. With experience, practice, procedure and the law it shows that it is a very cumbersome process approximated to take a period of about one to two years for the necessary documents to be completed.

The applicants then sign the certificate of title before it is returned to the Commission of Lands; however this will then move to the land officer again to check for approvals and finalisation.

In a nutshell, as observed from the above procedures concerning the allocation of land in urban areas, the process is a three-tier system that involves a variety of authorities. It is a long process and which takes so much time for citizens to understand the complexity of such procedures.

Basically, at times compensation for people to be removed from a planned area takes a longer time. Despite this, it is the allocation of urban land that will lead to “new cities” in the future such as the envisaged Kigamboni City and many others. Kindly note that the article is a compressed and summarized piece of the whole process of allocation of land. However, the whole process is very long and cumbersome in general.

The author is an associate advocate at ABC Attorneys and a member of the Young International Arbitration Group (YIAG)