DODOMA — The Tanzanian Government has reduced the cost of planning and surveying a single plot in developed areas to TZS 130,000, in a move aimed at making land formalisation more affordable for residents.
The reduction was announced in Parliament on August 31, 2026, by Deputy Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development Kaspar Mmuya, while responding to a question concerning the availability of affordable surveying services for residents in Mafinga.
Under the 2021 Regularization Guideline, the cost of planning and surveying a plot in areas covered by the regularisation programme has been brought down from the previous range of TZS 250,000 to TZS 400,000 to TZS 130,000.
The Government says the measure is intended to encourage more property owners to formalise their land holdings and obtain legal recognition of their ownership.
The reduction continues a broader effort to make land formalisation more accessible. At the beginning of the national regularisation programme, residents were charged between TZS 250,000 and TZS 350,000, before the fee was subsequently reduced to TZS 150,000. The latest adjustment brings the cost down further.
The national land regularisation programme was introduced to identify and formalise informal settlements that developed outside established urban planning procedures.
However, the TZS 130,000 charge applies specifically to planning and surveying carried out under the regularisation framework. Ordinary land surveying outside the regularisation process remains subject to the 2016 Plot Pricing Guideline.
According to the Government, the cost of ordinary surveying varies depending on factors such as the size of the area, distance from reference points, equipment required and the cost of boundary markers.
The Government has encouraged residents with informal land holdings to take advantage of the reduced fees and follow the required legal procedures to formalise their properties.
The move is expected to lower one of the financial barriers to land formalisation while strengthening security of tenure and supporting more orderly urban development across Tanzania. citeturn0view0