The claim
Ask this question online and almost every answer we found is “yes, easily” — and almost everyone answering is selling property in Zanzibar. We are not. So here is what the signed law itself says, with the schedule and page for every figure.
The short version: the question is framed wrong. Zanzibar’s land law declares every parcel of natural land public land, vested in the President “for the use and common benefit, direct or indirect, of the people of Zanzibar” — Land Tenure Act 1992, section 3, read from the signed Act, 2 Aug 2026. Nobody holds freehold, foreign or local. A Zanzibari can hold a perpetual “right of occupancy” (sections 7–8, same source and date); the interest the land law names for a non-Zanzibari is a lease — section 46: the Minister may lease public land not already held under a right of occupancy “to any person, Zanzibari or non-Zanzibari.” So a foreign “purchase” is a bundle of rights: a unit in an approved project, held against a time-limited lease, with the Investment Act 2023’s incentives attached. Whether the bundle is what you want is the real question, and you can only answer it by knowing what is in it — and for how long.
Basis for every figure on this page: thresholds are administered in USD; each figure is the schedule’s own wording, read from the signed instrument on the date shown beside it. How we price.
The two routes, and the two very different numbers
The Act creates two separate doors, and the sales material routinely blurs them:
The investor route. A ZIPA Certificate of Investment — the route for someone building a project — has minimum capital thresholds set by the Act’s Second Schedule, read from the signed Act, 1 Aug 2026: USD 100,000 for a Tanzanian; USD 200,000 for diaspora; USD 500,000 for a foreign investor (alone or jointly with a Tanzanian) in sectors other than hotels and real estate; and USD 2,500,000 for a foreign investor in hotels and real estate.
The figure most websites still quote — “$300,000 minimum for foreigners” — is not a threshold in the Act now in force: the Second Schedule’s numbers are the four above, and the 2023 Act repealed its predecessor at section 62(1), same source and date. The $300,000 appears to trace to the pre-2023 regime, and at least one official-looking portal still carries it. If a broker quotes you $300,000 as the legal threshold, ask them which instrument it comes from — outdated is not lying, but the burden of citation is theirs.
The two doors side by side — the build door priced twice, by sector; each cell cites its ledger row, ordered by threshold, largest first:
| Build: hotels & real estate | Build: other sectors | Buy in an approved project | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Figure | USD 2,500,000 | USD 500,000 | USD 100,000 |
| Tradeoff | Foreign investor (alone or joint), Second Schedule | Foreign investor (alone or joint), Second Schedule | Buyer incentives, Fifth Schedule Part Four |
| Read on |
Each column cites its ledger row: inv-capital-thresholds (2026-08-01) · inv-capital-thresholds (2026-08-01) · inv-buyer-incentives (2026-08-01). The order is explained in the text, never paid.
The buyer route. If you are buying rather than building, the number is different and much smaller:
USD 100,000
minimum property value for the buyer incentives in an approved real-estate project
Fifth Schedule, Part Four, section 6 of the Act — read from the signed Act, 1 Aug 2026.
A buyer at or above that value in an approved real-estate project may be granted: residence permits for the buyer, a spouse and four children under twenty; a 50% stamp-duty exemption; 100% foreign ownership; and 100% repatriation of sale proceeds after tax — Fifth Schedule, Part Four, same source and date. Note the Act’s own verbs: these incentives “may be granted”, and section 51 routes eligibility through the regulations. It is a gateway, not an automatic entitlement.
The lease is the whole game
Here is where the two acts have to be read together, and where the sales pitch and the statutes part company in both directions.
The Investment Act fixes the real-estate land lease at 33 years — land and marina alike, Fifth Schedule, Part Four, read from the signed Act, 1 Aug 2026 — and in the sections and schedules we have read, says nothing about renewing it. The older land law is more generous than our first read assumed: the Land Tenure Act 1992 caps any public-land lease at 49 years per term (section 47(1)) and then says, in terms, that such leases “may be renewed” (section 47(2)), read from the signed Act, 2 Aug 2026. So when an agency says “renewable”, that is not invented — renewal of public-land leases is statutory.
What we still cannot find is the number everyone attaches to it. Almost every agency and law-firm site we have read says “33 years, renewable up to 99” — and no instrument we have read states any 99-year total, or says how the 1992 Act’s renewal power applies to a 2023-Act investment lease. Renewal exists; the guarantee of 99 is the part with no citation. Ask whoever quotes it to name the instrument — or show the clause in the signed lease.
And one more line from the 1992 Act that we have never seen a brochure quote: a public-land lease “shall not be sold, assigned, sub-leased or sub-divided but shall be inheritable” — section 47(3), same source and date. Read that against any pitch about resale value. Two other instruments sit in the same question: the Investment Act requires written approval from ZIPA before an approved investment is transferred or disposed of (section 55, read from the signed Act, 1 Aug 2026), and the Condominium Act lets a unit-owner transfer a unit “to any other person” (section 16(1)(b), read 2 Aug 2026). Which of the three governs the resale of your particular unit is exactly the kind of question that belongs to a lawyer, not a listing. Ask the developer: under which section does my resale happen?
The fact sheet: what each instrument says, quoted
| Instrument | Section | What it says | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land Tenure Act 1992 | s.46 | “The Minister may lease any public land which does not comprise a right of occupancy to any person, Zanzibari or non-Zanzibari” | |
| Land Tenure Act 1992 | s.47(1) | “No lease of public land executed under the provisions of this Part shall exceed a maximum of forty nine years” | |
| Land Tenure Act 1992 | s.47(2) | “leases of public land may be renewed” | |
| Land Tenure Act 1992 | s.47(3) | “Leases of public land shall not be sold, assigned, sub-leased or sub-divided but shall be inheritable” | |
| Zanzibar Investment Act No. 10 of 2023 | Fifth Sch. Pt 4, s.5 | “land lease agreement is thirty three years; and (d) marina lease agreement is thirty three years” | |
| Zanzibar Investment Act No. 10 of 2023 | s.55(1) | “shall seek written approval from the Authority before concluding such transaction” | |
| Zanzibar Condominium Act 2010 | s.22(3) | “rescind the sale agreement within ten working days after the date of its execution” |
Each row quotes the instrument itself and dates our reading of it. We render what a document says; we never render a conclusion the documents only imply — that is a question for counsel.
What we have not verified, and are not going to bluff
- The residence permit’s duration. The Act provides that the permit may be granted, and says nothing about how long it lasts. The “2 years, renewable” repeated on agency sites appears in no official source we have found. It is question one in our letter to ZIPA.
- How the acts fit together. The 1992 Act caps a lease term at 49 years and allows renewal; the 2023 Act grants 33 years and states no renewal in the schedules we have read; the 1992 Act forbids selling or assigning a public-land lease while the 2023 Act provides a transfer route with ZIPA’s written approval and the Condominium Act provides transfer to any other person. Every one of those sentences is verified; how they combine in your contract is not — that is the counsel review on our list, and no answer you get from a seller substitutes for it.
- The condominium question, now answered as far as the text goes. The Zanzibar Condominium Act 2010 creates unit title and is nationality-silent — we read it, and no provision addresses foreign buyers (Act No. 10 of 2010, read from the signed Act, 2 Aug 2026). The “Condominium Act lets foreigners buy” line is an inference; the foreigner-specific route runs through the Investment Act. One genuinely useful thing the 2010 Act does say: a buyer from a developer may rescind the sale agreement within ten working days (section 22(3)) — a protection we have never seen in a brochure.
- Anything about returns. You will notice this page contains no yields, no appreciation forecasts and no “ROI”. A developer’s projection is marketing, and quoting it would launder it. We publish what the law says, not what the brochure hopes.
How to read any Zanzibar property pitch
Four questions separate a checkable offer from a repeated claim, and all four have checkable answers:
Which door?
Investor certificate or buyer in an approved project? The thresholds differ by an order of magnitude (Second Schedule and Fifth Schedule of the 2023 Act, read 1 Aug 2026) and the rights attached differ too.
Which instrument?
For every promised right — lease length, renewal, residency, repatriation — ask for the act, schedule and section, or the clause in the lease contract. “It’s standard” is not a citation.
What happens at year 33?
The Fifth Schedule fixes 33 years and says nothing about renewal; the 1992 land law does let public-land leases renew (s.47(2)); no instrument we have read states a 99-year total. Ask where the renewal — and especially the 99 — is written, in statute or in your signed lease.
Is the project approved?
The buyer incentives attach to approved real-estate projects only. Ask for the project’s ZIPA approval, not the developer’s assurance.
About this page. We are not investment advisers, lawyers or tax professionals, and nothing here is advice to invest. We publish what official sources say, with the source and the date we read it. Rules change and individual situations differ: verify anything that matters with ZIPA, your own lawyer and your own accountant before money moves.
We earn a booking commission on some travel listings on this site — the bands are stated in the footer of every page. We earn nothing from any property, project or operator, and no developer is named or recommended on this page.
FAQ
Can a foreigner own freehold land in Zanzibar?
No — and neither can anyone else. All natural land in Zanzibar is public land vested in the President (Land Tenure Act 1992, s.3, read from the signed Act, 2 Aug 2026). A Zanzibari can hold a perpetual right of occupancy; the interest the land law names for a non-Zanzibari is a lease (s.46, same source and date) — fixed at 33 years for approved real-estate projects under the Investment Act 2023 (Fifth Schedule, read 1 Aug 2026).
How much do I need to invest in Zanzibar as a foreigner?
Two different numbers for two different things, both from the Act’s own schedules, read 1 Aug 2026. Building: a foreign investor’s ZIPA certificate requires USD 2,500,000 for hotels and real estate, or USD 500,000 in sectors other than those. Buying: the buyer incentives in an approved project apply from a property value of USD 100,000 — and they are permissive, not automatic; section 51 routes eligibility through the regulations.
Do I get residency if I buy property in Zanzibar?
The Act says a buyer at USD 100,000 or above in an approved project may be granted residence permits for the buyer, spouse and four children under twenty — Fifth Schedule, Part Four, read 1 Aug 2026. What the Act does not say is how long the permit lasts; we have found no official source for the “2 years” widely quoted, and we are asking ZIPA in writing.
Is the 33-year lease renewable to 99 years?
Half of that claim is law and half is not, and the difference matters. Renewal is real: the Land Tenure Act 1992 says public-land leases “may be renewed” (s.47(2), read from the signed Act, 2 Aug 2026). The 99-year total is stated in no instrument we have read, and neither is how the 1992 renewal power applies to the Investment Act’s 33-year lease. Treat “renewable” as statute and “up to 99” as a sales claim until someone shows you the provision — or the clause in a signed lease.