According to the new Land Act (Amendment Act 2022), Malawi has three categories of land:
- Private land, which comprises freehold land, leasehold land, and customary estates.
- Public land, which comprises Government land and unallocated customary land used for the benefit of the community as a whole.
- Customary Land, used, occupied, and held by chiefs.
The Land (Amendment) Act prohibits the granting of freehold to a person, but allows those who already hold such land titles to continue. The Office of the Commissioner of Lands administers and manages land matters, including making grants, leases, and other dispositions.
Acquisition procedures
The Land Act 2016 provides the following provisions::
- Land designated for investment purposes shall be identified, published in the Gazette, and allocated to the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre. The center shall create derivative rights to investors in accordance with the Investment and Export Promotion Act, 2012.
- The size of land allocated to investors shall comply with ceilings set by the Minister responsible for lands in consultation with the Minister responsible for investments, based on the type of activity and location of the land.
- It prohibits the sale or grant of a lease to non-Malawians.
- Non-Malawians shall not exchange the title of land amongst themselves by way of a gift.
Construction permit procedures
An investor who has acquired land and requires a construction permit needs to follow these steps:
- Prepare block and building plans using engineers and/or architects approved by the National Construction Council of Malawi.
- Fill in and submit Development Permission forms at the office of the Regional Commissioner of Lands/Regional Commissioner for Physical Planning. The forms should be accompanied by a site plan and block and building plans.
- Once the block and building plans have been certified by the Regional Commissioner of Lands, the applicant takes them to the district or city council where the investment is to take place.
- A scrutiny fee charged by the council should be paid upon submission of the block and building plans.
- At the council, the plans are first reviewed by a technical committee, which may determine whether an Environmental Impact Assessment report is required to be included in the submission or not.
- Upon the recommendation of the technical committee, the council's town planning committee further reviews and approves the submitted investment plans.
- Once the town planning committee is satisfied with the application details, it issues a grant permission in accordance with the Town and Planning Act (cap 23:01). The grant permission outlines the conditions of the approved grant, including validity and payment of the certificate of occupation fee after completion, which is 1% of the total cost of the development, among others.