Equatorial Guinea

Registering Property in

Equatorial Guinea

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: XAF 342,061,048.34
  • City: Malabo

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Lawyer prepares sales contract

It is common practice to hire a lawyer to write the contract. The lawyer requires the property title (copy) and a copy of the company representative’s passport. In practice, banks hold the property title when granting a mortgage. Therefore, no prior verification of any encumbrances on the property is done.
2 days CFA 150,000-800,000
2 Assessment of the value of the land and building

The assessment is done by an expert, generally an engineer. The engineer issues a certificate of measure (certificado de medicion) for the land plot and assesses the value of the building.
7 days CFA 200,000
3 Notary legalizes the sales contract and prepares the public deed (escritura publica)

Official fees are fixed at 1.5% property value, but in practice higher fees are charged. In addition to the official fees, one must pay the salary of the notary at a rate of about 1.5% property value. All fees are paid in stamps bought from the Treasury.
3-10 days 3% of value of property (actually paid in procedure 4)
4 Go to Treasury to buy stamps to pay the notary and registration fees

All fees are paid at the Treasury and stamps bought to prove payment. Stamps are then presented to the respective parties (notary, registry) to prove payment. Both the notary and registration fees can be paid together at this time.

Agency: Treasury 		1 day 3% of property value (notary fees) + 3% property value (registration fees)
5 Return to notary to present him the payment stamps

Parties receive the public deed at this time.
1 day (paid in procedure 4)
6 Registration of the public deed at the Property Registry

The fee paid is higher than the official fee of 1.5% property value, as in practice one pays also the salary of the registrar, at an additional 1.5% property value. The entire public deed is hand-written into the public registry’s books at this time.

Agency: Property Registry 		5 days 3% of property value (paid in stamps obtained from procedure 4)
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