(Business in Cameroon) – Cameroon’s 2026 Finance Law establishes a stricter forfeiture framework for parcels within the state’s private domain, tightening conditions for acquiring this land. It links a beneficiary’s failure to meet the obligations in the allocation deed to loss of rights and an upward revaluation of lots returned to the market.
Forfeiture refers to the loss of the right to occupy or use a parcel when the obligations in the administrative act of allocation and transfer of rights—particularly related to land development—are not met. The text states that forfeiture is recorded one year after the date of allocation by decision of the minister in charge of State Property. From that point, the value of the forfeited lot is recalculated using a progressive scale applied to its initial sale price.
A progressive revaluation of forfeited lots
The new scale provides for a 10% increase in value during the first two years after allocation, 20% in the third and fourth years, and 30% from the fifth year onward.
For example, an individual or company that acquires a lot from the state’s private domain for CFA10 million and fails to develop it within one year would see the parcel, once forfeited, revalued to CFA11 million after two years, CFA12 million after three and four years, and CFA13 million from the fifth year. This revaluation applies when forfeited land is put back on the market.
A tool to mobilize revenue and secure public land
The measure supports the government’s strategy to boost domestic revenue and protect state land assets amid rising budget needs. By progressively increasing the cost of undeveloped parcels, it places greater pressure on investors who benefited from incentives under the 2013 investment law—revised in 2017—but contributed to the erosion of the state’s land holdings by failing to develop plots within the required timeframe.
The reform seeks to curb speculative retention of state-owned parcels while improving revenue from their sale or reassignment.
Scope of the state’s private domain
Ordinance No. 74-2 of July 6, 1974, defines the state’s private domain as all movable and immovable assets acquired by the state for free or for value. It includes land hosting buildings, structures, works, and facilities built and maintained by the state, as well as property devolved to the state.
It also encompasses rural or urban concessions subject to forfeiture or right of repossession, and assets belonging to associations dissolved for subversion or threats to national security, among others. The new revaluation grid now applies to this entire set of properties.
Alignment with the treatment of other assets
According to tax specialists, the reform aligns land policy with the treatment of other assets by extending to the state’s private domain a mechanism already applied to corporate assets for more than a decade. It corrects a weakness in the existing framework, which allowed land to remain undervalued.
“By granting land to investors, these lots become assets for the buyers, and the state believes they must now be revalued as time passes,” says economist and tax expert Jean Marie Mbiada. Specialists note that the measure has three goals: increasing revenue, securing the state’s private domain, and curbing its erosion, particularly by beneficiaries of incentive regimes who failed to develop their land within the allotted time.
Frédéric Nonos
