Property
State-dominated land ownership with concession rather than freehold for agriculture
The 1990 Land Orientation Law and the Civil Code govern property. Agricultural land is largely state-owned and held under long concessions, and foreign ownership of land is effectively excluded.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Conservation Foncière for registration; Agence Nationale du Cadastre for survey. Agricultural land concessions run 40 years, renewable.
Governing law
- Civil Code, Ordinance 75-58
- Law 90-25 on land orientation
- Law 90-30 on national state property
- Law 10-03 on agricultural land concessions
In practice
Algeria's socialist-era land settlement has not been unwound: most agricultural land remains state property, and Law 10-03 converted the previous perpetual usufruct into a 40-year renewable concession, which is transferable and mortgageable in limited ways but is not ownership. Anyone analysing agricultural investment must work from the concession, not from a title. Urban land registration is incomplete and a large stock of housing is held on unregistered or administratively regularised titles, with successive amnesty programmes attempting to formalise construction without permits. Foreign natural and legal persons are effectively barred from land ownership, so projects are structured around leases, concessions and Algerian-held vehicles.