Angola

Registering Property in

Angola

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: AOA 18,271,034.24
  • City: Luanda

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
* 1 Obtain an updated ownership certificate from the Registry

An updated certificate of the property ("certidão predial") is obtained from the relevant Real Estate Registry. It sets out a full description of the property, including information on its owner and any charges, liens or encumbrances pending over the property. The total fee for the "certidão predial" includes stamp duty (calculated according to the Law on Stamp Duty); Justice fees (calculated according to the Law on Justice Fees); fees to justice officers (according to the set contributions for the Justice budget); Notary fees and other fees. The total fee is also dependent on the current value of the fiscal unit (UCF), currently at AOA88, according to Despacho no. 174/11 of March 11, 2011.

Agency: Real Estate Registry (Conservatória do registo predial de Luanda) 		7 days (simultaneous with procedure 2) AOA 4500
* 2 Obtain an updated tax certificate from the Tax Office

An updated tax certificate is obtained from the relevant Tax Office, detailing the description of the property. An important piece of information to obtain from the tax certificate is whether the property was ever confiscated. Sometimes this information will not be included in the tax certificate. In this case, the buyer or his/her lawyer has to search the records of the Offical Gazette (Diario da Republica) to confirm that there were no confiscation dispatches covering the property.


Agency: Tax Office 		7 days (simultaneous with procedure 1) AOA 1,500
3 Pay transfer tax (Sisa)

A statement by the seller setting out the sales value or a copy of the Promissory Agreement of Sale and Purchase signed by both parties has to be presented to the tax authorities. The chief official of the tax administration office has to agree to the value of the transaction. If the tax authorities deem it necessary, an inspector may go to evaluate the property for tax purposes. Once the value of the transaction has been agreed to by the tax authorities, the Sisa tax will be applied to that value. The tax authorities will issue a receipt upon payment of the transfer tax (Sisa), which will be given to the notary public as part of Procedure 4 below. Typically, the transfer tax is only paid when the parties have agreed between them and with a notary public a fixed date for the execution of the required notary deed.




Agency: Tax Authority 		7 days 2% of property value (transfer tax, Sisa)
4 Execute the deed of transfer before a notary public

A notary public executes the deed of transfer. The 0.3% Stamp Duty is paid to the notary on the value stated on the transfer tax (Sisa) receipt, together with the notary fees, which depend on the value of the transaction, but also on the notary office and the number of pages being notarized.
From this moment onwards, the buyer is the lawful owner of the property in light of the transaction. Registration is needed for publicity purposes and protection against third parties.

The documentation shall include:
• Proof of payment of transfer tax (obtained in Procedure 3)
• Updated registry certificate from Land Registry (obtained in Procedure 1)
• Updated tax certificate from Tax Office (obtained in Procedure 2)
• Personal identification documents of the buyer and seller (passports, identity card, etc.)
• Registry of Companies' Certificates if seller and buyer are companies, so as to provide evidence that the officer executing the deed on behalf of the corresponding company has authority to do so.

 9 days Notary fees and stamp duty (0.3% of property value) are paid at the Notary. Notary fees are calculated according to Joint Executive Decree 52/03 of September 9, 2003: a) For each notarization, 80 UCF b) For each page or fraction, 10 UCF c) Depending on t
5 Apply for provisional registration at the Land Registry Office

The notarized deed certificate must be presented to apply for provisional registration at the Land Registry Office. It is no longer necessary to apply for provisional registration at the Tax Office as final registration with the tax office is processed much quicker than with the Real Estate Registry.


Agency: Land Registry Office 		5 days Value of property Fee per 88 UCF (UCF) Number Amount a) up to 60 UCF = 6 = 6 * 2 = 12.00 b) from 60 UCF to 400 UCF = 9 * ((400 -60))/30 = 102.00 c) from 400 UCF to 4000 UCF = 10 * ((4000-400)/30) = 1,200.00 d) above 4000 UCF = 0.05 *
6 Receive definitive registration from the Real Estate Registry

This procedure is a conversion, not a new act of registration and it will take place approximately 10 months after provisional registration. The procedure takes so long because there is a backlog, all records are paper-based and the entire history of transactions relevant to the property must be checked every time.

Agency: Real Estate Registry (Conservatória do registo predial de Luanda) 		150 days (5 months) Already paid in Procedure 5
7 Apply for definitive registration at the Tax Office

At the tax office, there is only final registration. Provisional registration is no longer applicable, as final registration has become considerably faster.


Agency: Tax Office 		5 days AOA 175
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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