Answer ... Land: Land is the baseline for all types of real property.
There are two types of regimes governing land in Côte d’Ivoire:
- the rural land regime, regulated by Law 98-750 of 23 December 1998 on Rural Land Tenure; and
- the urban land regime, governed by the Ordinance 2013-481 of 2 July 2013 Setting the Rules for Acquiring Ownership of Urban Land.
Both regimes concern the conditions for land acquisition in Côte d’Ivoire.
The rural land regime applies to all land, whether developed or not, and regardless of the nature of the development.
It constitutes a national heritage to which any natural or legal person may have access. However, only the state, public authorities and Ivorian individuals are allowed to own it (see Article 1 of Law 98-750).
The urban land regime applies to urban land, with the exception of land used for industry or the promotion of tourism (see Article 1 of Ordinance 2013-481).
Any occupation of urban land must be justified by the possession of a final concession title issued by the minister in charge of construction and urban planning.
Urban land is composed of all land in the private or public domain of the state covered by urban planning documents.
The urban planning documents are the set of rules and institutions established to regulate urban growth and development (see Article 3 of Law 2020-624 of 14 August 2020 Establishing the Urban Planning and Urban Land Code). These are, in particular:
- the town planning certificate;
- the general or specific town planning regulations;
- the general land use rules;
- the building permit;
- the prior town planning agreement; and
- the certificate of conformity.
Residential: Residential real estate is an area developed for people to live in. It cannot be used for commercial or industrial purposes. This regime is governed by Law 2019-576 of 26 June 2019 Establishing the Construction and Housing Code.
The location of these residences will be determined in accordance with the land use coefficient and the setbacks determined by the specific town planning regulations of the municipality.
In the absence of specific town planning regulations, the general town planning regulations will apply.
The management of construction and the built environment throughout the whole national territory is based on the risk posed by the construction and use of the building.
Commercial and industrial: ‘Commercial property’ refers to land and buildings that are used by businesses to carry out their operations. Examples include shopping malls, hotels and structuring projects (see Article 1 of the Investment Code 2018).
‘Industrial real estate’ refers to land and buildings that are used by industrial businesses for activities such as factories, agro-industry and health.