Rwanda

Registering Property in

Rwanda

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: RWF 15,835,680.15
  • City: Kigali

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Request a certificate from the Rwanda Development Board on the title status

The buyer should perform due diligence before entering into a sale agreement with the owner of the property by making sure that the property has no charges against it. The buyer will write a letter to the Office of the Registrar General and provide a copy of the Title. A letter will be issued by the Office of the Registrar General providing information on the status of the property, whether the property is encumbered with mortgages or liens.

Agency: Office of Registrar General 		2 days No cost
2 The Sale agreement is notarized

The law requires that the sale agreement be authenticated by a notary.
Article 35 of the property law specifies that for the transfer of any property, any adult of 21 years old or older, must give their consent to the transfer of property. It is the practice that parties ask the notary to draft the sale agreement himself.

The parties sign the agreement in presence of two to four witnesses and in presence of the public notary. The Contract is made in 6 copies, one of which is kept with the notary and two others given to each the buyer and the seller.
The notarization of the first page of the document costs RWF 1,800. The notarization of each other page costs RWF 600. The typical sale contract length is of 3 pages plus another 3 pages for the notarized act. The cost of this procedure will not exceed RWF 10,000.

2 days RWF 10,000 (copies of sale agreement) + RWF 7300 (notary services)
3 Obtain an expertise on the property

The seller of property, in order to obtain the obtain a Tax Clearance certificate will have an expertise of the property to show its true value and show whether there is a Capital Gains Tax, mainly for commercial and industrial properties. Experts are now regulated in Rwanda since May 2010.

Agency: Private evaluator 		2 - 3 days RWF 937 361
4 Obtain Tax Clearance Certificate

Tax clearance certificate will always be a prerequisite to indicate that one has no tax liabilities. Tax clearance certificate is issued for transfer of real estate. Whenever there is sale of real property, the RRA will always require the person who has acquired such property to have a tax clearance certificate.
Capital Gains Tax derived or cession of commercial immovable property is separately taxed at 30%. CGT on listed securities are exempt.

Tax clearance certificate shall be required on such real property irrespective of whether the property was used for commercial, industrial or residential.

To obtain a Tax Clearance certificate, the applicant has to fill a form which among other things mentions the use the property before it is sold. When it is ascertained that it was used for commercial or industrial purposes, which are most likely similar, then this is likely to attract CGT, in which case if the property has been used for commercial purposes for over one year, expertise shall be required. There are professionals registered with the National Bank that performs such a function.
A copy of commercial register in case the applicant is a businessman.


Agency: Rwanda Revenue Authority 		10 days RWF 5,000
5 Finalize registration at the Registrar of Real Estate (Conservateur du Titre Foncier) and obtain new deed

The seller takes the authenticated sale agreement, the registration receipt and the certificate of good fiscal standing to the Registrar of Real Estate and files a request of the transfer of property.
The documents to be provided are the following:

(1) Completed form to request the transfer
(2) Original property title
(3) The notarized sale agreement
(4) Tax clearance certificate

The 6% of registration fees at the Rwanda Revenue Authority was abolished in January 2008 and replaced by a flat rate of RWF20, 000 paid for all transactions, regardless of the price of the property.
Payment of the fees is made in a Bank on the Rwanda Revenue Authority account.

The fixed costs are broken down as follows:
Fees on the sale agreement: RWF 1500
Fees on the notarized act: RWF 1500
Fees on the notarized copies of the act: RWF 500
Cancellation of the old registration certificate: RWF 1000
Fees to establish a new registration certificate: RWF 2000


Agency: National Land Centre and the Office of the Registrar of Titles 		average 11 days RWF 6,500 + 20 000 RWF registration tax + RWF 4500 (fixed costs)
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