How to Buy Land in South Sudan Safely: What the Land Act Actually Lets You Own (2026)

The first thing to understand: there are three kinds of land, and only one can be sold outright

The Land Act 2009 sorts every piece of ground in South Sudan into three classes, and the class decides what a seller can actually give you.

• Public land is held by government in trust for everyone: government buildings, roads, rivers, gazetted reserves, and all land where no private or customary ownership can be established. Nobody can sell it to you. Government can allocate it, through the proper land authority, and an allocation that skips the procedure is void (section 90).
• Community land belongs to a community identified by ethnicity, residence or interest: grazing areas, cultivation land, forests, shrines. The community, through its Traditional Authority, can allocate a customary right to an individual, or lease a portion. It does not sell it.
• Private land is registered land held under freehold or leasehold (section 12). This is the only class where "I am selling you this plot" can be literally true, and even then the sale only becomes yours when it is registered.

Most of the trouble in Juba starts with people selling, as private land, something that was never private: a customary allocation, an undemarcated area of community land, or a plot "allocated" by someone with no authority to allocate. The Central Equatoria minister responsible for land said as much in 2025, warning residents that individuals were collecting money for plots in Juba with no state or national mandate and that the same land was being issued twice. His advice was not to deal with them. The law's advice, set out below, is how to tell the difference.

Who may own what

Citizens may hold land under any of the three systems, and the Act says the right to land may not be denied on grounds of sex, ethnicity or religion; women have the right to own and inherit land alongside any other heirs (section 13). If you are being told that a woman cannot be the registered owner, the person telling you is wrong.

Non-citizens may acquire a leasehold or other interest for a specified period, for residential or investment purposes, but not freehold (section 14). A foreign buyer offered a freehold title is being offered something the law does not allow, and a registration office cannot lawfully record it.

Customary land: a right to use, not a thing to sell

This is the part that catches people. A customary right allocated by a Traditional Authority under section 15 lasts for the natural life of the person it was allocated to and can be inherited, but the Act says in terms that it "can not be alienated". It is not a plot you can buy from the holder and put in your own name.

What the law does allow around community land:

• The Traditional Authority may allocate a customary right to a person for residential, farming, forestry or grazing use, after consulting the community on the size and boundaries. It must notify the County Land Authority or the Payam Land Council of the allocation, and the parties may go on to register it in the prescribed form (section 15).
• The community, again through its Traditional Authority and with the community's consensus, may lease a portion of its land to a person or company, national or foreign, for up to 99 years. Up to 250 feddans goes through the Traditional Authority with the County Land Authority and the Payam Land Council; anything larger needs the State ministry's approval with the Investment Authority. The lease must be notified and registered, and the land reverts to the community when it ends (section 27).

So if someone offers to "sell" you land in a customary area, the honest versions of that deal are: an allocation to you by the Traditional Authority, properly notified and registered; or a lease from the community, in writing and registered. A private handshake with the current holder gives you his use of the land for as long as nobody objects, which is not ownership, and not something a bank will lend against. Our guide to borrowing money safely in South Sudan explains why lenders ask for registered title.

Leases: what the Act says about the term and the paperwork

Any owner may lease land for a fixed period. The Act caps every lease at 99 years, and a lease written for longer is read as 99 years (sections 18 and 19). Two rules on form matter in practice:

• A lease for more than one year must be in writing (section 19). A lease of one year or less may be oral, but then its validity depends on witnesses on both sides under the Evidence Act (section 20).
• A lease for a specified period over two years, or one with an option to extend that takes it over two years, must be registered in the prescribed form (section 56(3)).

Two more are worth knowing before you build on leased land. If rent is more than 90 days in arrears, the lessor may serve notice giving up to 30 days to pay, and then go to court to end the lease (section 25). And when a lease ends, any construction passes to the lessor unless the contract provides for compensation (section 26). If you are putting up a house on a lease, that clause belongs in the contract before the first block is laid.

When a purchase becomes yours: registration, not payment

For private land, the Act is precise. An owner transfers land, a lease or a charge by an instrument in the prescribed form, and the transfer "shall be completed by registration of the transferee as owner" (section 56). Until your name is in the register, you have a contract with the seller and a claim against him; you do not have the land.

Registration is what makes ownership real in a second sense too. Section 60 says that registering a person as owner vests ownership in that person, free from any other interests and claims, subject only to what the register itself shows (leases, charges, conditions, easements). That is why a seller's registered certificate of title is the document to ask for, and why the register, not the seller's word, is the thing to check.

A certificate of title or certificate of lease is issued by the registration office on request to the registered owner or lessee, and the Act lists what it must show (section 57): a unique parcel reference number and location, a reference to the folio in the register, the date of issue, the name of the registered person and the nature and extent of their interest, and a schedule of every current encumbrance, charge, restriction and condition. A document missing those elements is not a certificate of title, whatever it is called.

Inheritance follows the same logic: a transfer of ownership through inheritance must be made in writing and registered at the closest registration office (section 56(4)). Buying from "the family of the late owner" without that step means buying from people who may not yet own it themselves. Wills and inheritance are covered in our saving guide's planning section.

Where to go, and why the answer is changing

The Act places the Land Registry in the national ministry responsible for housing and physical planning, decentralised to the States, with registration offices at each level of land administration (section 54). In practice South Sudan inherited a system in which land registration sat with the judiciary, and that is being unwound: in April 2024 the national Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development was setting up a registry to take over the documentation of property rights, and the chair of the Land Commission described the old arrangement as making the courts both executive and judge. Central Equatoria launched its own digital land registry for Juba in August 2023 with the stated aim of cutting land fraud.

What that means for a buyer in 2026 is that the correct office depends on where the land is and on how far the handover has gone. The right move is to ask, before paying anything, the State ministry responsible for land (in Central Equatoria, the Ministry of Housing, Land and Public Utilities) and the Payam Land Council for the area: whether the parcel is registered, in whose name, and under which class. The Payam Land Council's statutory functions include supporting the registration and transfer of interests in land and resolving disputes (section 50), so it is not an optional stop.

Also ask whether any order affecting the area is in force. Central Equatoria issued a ministerial order in 2026 suspending new identification and surveying activities across its counties and Juba City Council; a plot that depends on a new survey may not be registrable while such an order stands.

A buyer's checklist, drawn from the Act

1. Classify the land. Public, community or private? If public, only a lawful allocation by the land authority counts. If community, you are looking at an allocation or a lease, not a sale.
2. See the register, not a photocopy. For private land, ask for the certificate of title and check it against the registration office's folio: parcel number, registered owner, encumbrances. The seller's name must be the registered name.
3. Check for charges. The certificate lists charges and restrictions. A plot pledged to a bank is sold subject to that charge.
4. Non-citizen? Only a leasehold or similar interest for a fixed period. Refuse a freehold offer.
5. Put it in writing, in the prescribed form. Oral deals are valid only for leases of a year or less, and even then need witnesses.
6. Register the transfer in your name. The sale is complete when you are the registered transferee, not when the money moves.
7. If it is a lease: written if over one year, registered if over two, term within 99 years, and a clause on who owns the buildings at the end.
8. Keep every receipt, instrument and acknowledgement. The register decides ownership; your documents decide whether you can get the money back if it goes wrong.

Pay in a way that leaves a trail. Our guide to spotting a money scam in South Sudan covers the pressure tactics that land sellers use, and keeping money safe in a South Sudanese bank covers moving a large sum without carrying it.

If something goes wrong

The Act builds in a ladder, and it starts outside the courts.

• Irregular allocations. An allocation made without the proper procedure can be nullified by a court on the application of a public authority or any private person with an interest, provided the application is made within one year of when the applicant knew, or should have known, about the irregularity (section 90). Allocating land that was not available for allocation is treated as abuse of office. The one-year clock is the reason to check early.
• Good-faith occupiers. A person who occupied land in good faith, without a mistake no reasonable person would make, is not treated as an unlawful occupant and may be compensated for improvements by whoever evicts them (section 89).
• Appeals against the Payam Land Council go to the County Land Authority, within one year of becoming aware of the decision (section 51).
• Disputes between people are to be taken first to alternative and traditional dispute resolution, applying the customary law of the locality (section 91). The parties may ask for a mediator from the County Land Authority, the Payam Land Council or the Traditional Authority; the mediator helps but cannot impose a result (sections 92 and 93). They may instead apply for arbitration, where a committee can summon witnesses and take evidence on oath; its award binds the parties by their consent and can be appealed to the Land Commission (sections 94 to 96). Arbitration costs are shared proportionally, under fee systems the Commission and local land authorities are to set (section 97).
• Courts remain available under the Civil Procedure Act, and the Act provides for a Land Division of the courts (sections 98 and 99).

If government takes land for a public purpose, compensation must be just and equitable, taking into account the use of the land, its market value and the investment made in it, and no transfer may happen until the type, amount, method and timing of compensation have been agreed. If payment is more than 60 days late after the transfer, interest at commercial rates is added (section 75).

Frequently asked questions

Can I buy a plot from someone who was allocated it by the chief? Not as a sale. A customary right cannot be alienated (section 15(8)). What can lawfully happen is a fresh allocation to you by the Traditional Authority, notified to the land authority and registered, or a registered lease from the community.

The seller has a "land form" from a Boma or Payam. Is that a title? No. A certificate of title is issued by the registration office and must carry the parcel reference, the folio reference, the registered name and the schedule of encumbrances (section 57). An allocation form records that an allocation was made; it is the start of the process, not the end.

I have paid in full. Is the land mine? Only once you are registered as the transferee (section 56). Before that you have a contract and a claim against the seller.

Can two people both have title to the same plot? The register is meant to prevent it, and registration vests ownership free of other claims (section 60). Where it has happened through an irregular allocation, a court can nullify the irregular one if asked within a year (section 90). That is why the register, not a photocopy, is what you check.

I am not a South Sudanese citizen. What can I hold? A leasehold or other interest for a specified period, not freehold (section 14). Leases run to 99 years at most.

Who do I complain to about a fraudulent sale? A fraudulent sale is a crime as well as a land dispute; report it to the police and raise the land question with the Payam Land Council and the State ministry responsible for land. For the dispute itself the Act's ladder is mediation, arbitration, then court.

Sources

• The Land Act, 2009 (Laws of Southern Sudan), sections 4, 9 to 16, 17 to 27, 29, 50, 51, 53 to 57, 60, 75, 89, 90 and 91 to 99. Read in full, 24 October 2026, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' republication of the Act. Primary source for every rule and figure in this guide.
• Eye Radio, 13 August 2023 (Central Equatoria digital land registry launch); 15 April 2024 (national registry taking over from the judiciary); 21 April 2025 (State minister's warning on unauthorised plot sales and double issuance); 2026 (Ministerial Order No. 5/2026 on surveying). Corroborating context only; no figure is taken from them.

Last reviewed 24 October 2026 against the Land Act 2009. This is general information about how the law works, not advice on a particular purchase. Fees, forms and processing times are set locally and are changing as the registry moves from the courts to the ministries; confirm them with the State ministry responsible for land and the Payam Land Council before you pay.