Explainer: What happens after your 99-year land lease expires in Ghana
Ghanaians holding 99-year or 50-year leasehold titles to land will not lose their property outright when the term expires, as the law guarantees an opportunity for renewal, the Acting Greater Accra Regional Lands Officer, Surveyor Timothy Anyidoho, has clarified.
Speaking as part of a public education exercise on social media, Mr Anyidoho explained that a leasehold is an arrangement where land is given to an individual for an agreed number of years, usually 50, 60 or 99 years, depending on the negotiations between the parties.
“One question that keeps coming up anytime there’s the discussion of land is what a leasehold is,” he said. “After you’ve got it for your 99 years, or your 50 years, you say that the lease has expired, does that mean I lose the land? If you look at the laws we have in Ghana, there’s some relief for us. So there’s no need to panic.”
Quoting the law, Mr Anyidoho said: “Section 50 of the Land Act clearly states that if you are Ghanaian, a renewal is guaranteed. That means that upon expiration of the lease, you need to go back to the people who gave it to you for an extension of the lease. Mind you, it is not free. The law says it will be at a reasonable price, and that price will be negotiated.”
He noted that when a lease expires, negotiations for renewal may involve the descendants or beneficiaries of the original parties. “You may also not be living, and therefore it’s your children or some beneficiaries who will be there. They will then have to negotiate with the parties, those who have inherited from those who are assigned to you or you yourself, and then the lease will be renewed for you. So after 50 years, you don’t lose out completely. What will happen is that it gives an opportunity for a renewal of the lease, which is guaranteed by law.”
On the situation of foreigners, Mr Anyidoho stressed that the law does not guarantee automatic renewal. “If you are a foreigner in Ghana, the law says that you can either contract it or you can consult your grantors, for them to agree whether they want to renew it for you. But it’s not an automatic renewal. If you are not Ghanaian, then it must either be guaranteed in the first head lease, where it is stated clearly that after… you can get only 50 years. So it’s after your 50 years you go back to the people who gave it to you to negotiate for a renewal.”
He reassured Ghanaians that the Land Act offers clear protection and relief for leaseholders, urging the public not to panic when their leases approach expiration.
