Tanzania cuts land survey fee to TZS 130,000 per plot in developed areas
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Tanzania has reduced the cost of planning and surveying a plot in developed areas to TZS 130,000 under the 2021 Regularization Guideline, down from as much as TZS 400,000, as the government pushes more urban landholders to formalise titles.
Tanzania has reduced the cost of planning and surveying a single plot in developed areas to TZS 130,000 under the 2021 Regularization Guideline, Deputy Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development Kaspar Mmuya announced in Parliament on 31 August.
Mmuya was responding to a question from the Member of Parliament for Mafinga Urban, Dickson Nathan Lutevele, who asked when the government would introduce affordable land surveying for residents of the Isalavanu, Bumilayinga, Rungemba and Saohill wards. The new fee compares with previous costs that ranged between TZS 250,000 and TZS 400,000.
He explained that ordinary surveying which does not involve regularization is governed instead by the 2016 Plot Pricing Guideline, under which costs depend on factors including the distance and size of the area being surveyed, the distance from base marks, the number of instruments used, and the cost of boundary markers known as beacons.
The regularization exercise is a national programme aimed at identifying and formalizing informal settlements built without following urban planning procedures. It began in 2013 and was expected to be completed by 2023; fees were earlier cut from TZS 250,000 to TZS 350,000 down to TZS 150,000 by then Land Minister William Lukuvi, making the TZS 130,000 fee a further step in a cost-reduction trend running for roughly a decade.
Mmuya urged residents to use the opportunities provided under the guidelines to regularize and survey their properties through legal procedures to secure ownership.