Vanuatu

Registering Property in

Vanuatu

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: VUV 14,125,213.5
  • City: Port Vila

About This Topic

To see indicator data for all economies, see the Registering Property page. To see how economies rank, see the Rankings page.

No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
* 1 Payment of stamp duty at the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission

Transfer of a lease is done by mean of an instrument in the prescribed form. The seller, must provide warranty that there are no outstanding payment (such as the ren). The buyer should provide warranty that he/she will pay the rent and other obligations. After the agreement is executed by the parties, with no need to engage the services of a lawyer, the stamp duty must be paid. The stamp duty is paid at the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission. The Controller of Stamp Duties may take from one to 14 days to stamp the document. It depends on what type of lease documents are submitted to that Office. The Controller of Stamp Duty may require further details from the parties to assist that office to assess duty. In cases when a lease is transferred, before the parties may execute a transfer, the vendor (registered proprietor of the registered Lease) must have ready to hand to the purchaser a consent granted by the lessor (either the Government or custom owners as the case may be) agreeing to such transfer of the interests comprised in the lease.
The stamp duties act establishes stamp duty at 2% of property value. The 2007 amendment reduced it from 5 to 2%.


Agency: Vanuatu Financial Services Commission 		1-14 days 2% stamp duty on the value of the lease (stamp duty)
2 Obtain Ministerial consent to transfer the lease

According to the law, it is mandatory to request the consent of the Minister of lands to transfer a property, if the property is located in an urban area. In practice, there is a sale agreement between the parties and there is no need to hire a lawyer, or a real estate agent. All relevant documents are provided at the land registry.
The land department will verify that all taxes are paid. The State Law office will provide its legal advice on the documents to the Minister. The consent is picked up at the department of lands and surveys. Once consent is granted (and all encumbrances cleared – see following procedure), ownership is transferred and payment to the seller is made.


Agency: State Law Office (SLO) 		3 weeks to a month No cost
* 3 Check for encumbrances

It is usually the buyer who will request that a search is done on the property. The checking is done before so that the discharge of mortgage can be done prior to the registration.

Agency: Department of Lands Records 		1 day (simultaneous with procedure 1) VT 1500
4 Apply for and obtain registration of the deed of transfer at the Department of Lands Records

When the consent to transfer is granted, the documents are filed at the Department of Lands Records where payment of the registration fees is made. The fee is established in the Land lease act. The amendment of 2004 increased it from 2 to 6% and the amendment of 2006 decreased it from 6 to 5%. The Department of Lands Records is computerized, however, with the back log, requests are not processed immediately. When a company is involved, the memorandum and articles of association as well as the certificate of incorporation must be provided at registration.

Agency: Department of Lands Records 		3 - 4 months 5% registration fee on the value of the lease (registration fee)
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
Explore Economy Data