Tanzania · Residency by investment
Zanzibar Real Estate Buyer Residence Permit (Class C-11)
This route is open and written into law. Zanzibar Investment Act No. 10 of 2023, Fifth Schedule, Part Four, paragraph 6 allows a buyer of real estate worth at least USD 100,000 to receive resident permits for the buyer, the spouse and up to four children under twenty years old. The wording says permits may be granted, which makes this discretionary, not a guaranteed entitlement. The detailed criteria are meant to sit in regulations under section 51, which have not been published. The gazetted 2025 General Regulations do not contain them either. Zanzibar's own eRegulations portal is out of date and still quotes the repealed 2004 ZIPPA thresholds.
This is the rare case where the marketed number is real. USD 100,000 is written into the statute. Everything else around it is not. The lease runs 33 years, not 99. The permit lasts two years, not permanently. There is no route to citizenship. And as of February 2026, a purchase agreement is void unless ZIPA has endorsed the project.
Qualifying routes
Under Fifth Schedule Part Four, paragraph 6, this grants Class C-11 permits for the buyer, spouse and four children under 20. It also comes with a 50% stamp duty exemption and allows 100% repatriation of sales proceeds after tax.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- $100k
- Total landed cost
- Expect roughly USD 105,000-112,000 in year one for a family of four. That covers the USD 100k property, a USD 500 permit fee (USD 250 for EAC/diaspora, USD 50 re-entry), and transaction costs. After that, renewal runs roughly USD 500-700 every two years. The renewal and per-dependant figures come from developers, not official sources.
- Route type
- Residency by investment
- Timeline
- 2–9 months (There is no official service standard. The permit itself is issued by Tanzania Immigration, a union-level function, not by ZIPA, which only validates and recommends applications.)
- Physical presence
- Not specified. The permit runs up to 2 years and is renewable. No Tanzanian permit of any class runs longer than 2 years.
- Family
- SpouseFour children under the age of 20
- Permanent residency
- There is no path here. Tanzania has no permanent residence status at all.
- Citizenship
- This route cannot lead to citizenship. Citizenship and immigration are union matters, and Zanzibar has no power to confer either one. Ordinary naturalisation takes roughly 8 years, made up of 12 months continuous residence plus 7 years' aggregate in the preceding 10, along with a Kiswahili or English test.
- Language test
- Kiswahili or English
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted. You would have to renounce.
- Requirements
- a purchase of at least USD 100,000 in a ZIPA-approved real estate projecta ZIPA-endorsed sale and purchase agreementa Class C-11 permit application filed via Tanzania Immigrationa clean record
- The 99-year lease is a fiction. Foreigners cannot own land under the Land Tenure Act No. 12 of 1992. Paragraph 5(c) of the same Schedule grants a land lease agreement of thirty-three years. The oft-cited 99 years is really 33 plus 33 plus 33, with renewals that the statute does not actually guarantee. This is the central legal risk, and every developer site glosses over it.
- A ZIPA public notice dated 22 February 2026 requires every real estate project, including its marketing, to be approved by ZIPA before it goes ahead. The notice also states that any sale and purchase agreement is invalid unless ZIPA has endorsed it. In practice, that means unapproved projects are likely being marketed right now. A buyer could pay USD 100,000 and end up holding a void agreement, with no eligibility for a permit at all.
- The exit tax on sale is steep. A non-resident selling the property pays 30% on the gain, up from 20%, effective 1 July 2025. The Schedule's promise of 100% repatriation applies only after that tax is paid.
- Tanzania has no permanent residence status, and Zanzibar offers no path to citizenship. Citizenship and immigration fall under union authority, so Zanzibar has no power to grant either. Any site advertising Zanzibar citizenship by investment is describing something that does not exist in law.
- Class C carries no work rights. It exists for those who do not qualify for Class A or Class B.
- The same Act contains two different USD 100,000 figures, and they should not be confused. The Second Schedule's USD 100,000 is the Certificate of Investment threshold for Tanzanians. Foreigners face a different bar: USD 2.5m for hotels and real estate, or USD 500k for other sectors.
- The regulations under section 51 that actually set the buyer's qualifying criteria have not been published. Everything procedural downstream of the USD 100,000 remains unconfirmed.
- This is marketed as one process, but it is really two bureaucracies. The permit comes from Tanzania Immigration, a union matter. Income tax is administered by the TRA island-wide. Land, VAT (15% in Zanzibar vs 18% mainland), stamp duty and ZIPA, however, are devolved.
- Dual citizenship is not allowed. Section 7(4) strips citizenship from anyone who voluntarily acquires another nationality, and section 7(5) requires renunciation on naturalisation. The proposed Diaspora Tanzanite Card is a substitute for dual citizenship, not a step toward it.
- Tanzania does not participate in the CRS. The OECD lists it among developing countries that have not been asked to commit, and no exchange date has been set.