Property
Foreign nationals effectively cannot own land
Bangladesh does not permit land ownership by foreign individuals. Foreign-owned companies may hold land for approved industrial purposes, and long leases are the practical route otherwise.
Key rules
- Deadline — Deed registration within the period fixed by the Registration Act to preserve priority
Governing law
- Transfer of Property Act, 1882
- Registration Act, 1908
- State Acquisition and Tenancy Act, 1950
In practice
Title is deed-based rather than a guaranteed register, so diligence means tracing a chain of deeds, mutation records and rent receipts — a genuinely error-prone exercise, and fraudulent duplicate deeds are a known problem. The Vested Property Return Act addresses land taken from Hindu owners after 1965 and can cloud title decades later. Registration duty and gains tax on transfer are substantial.