Property
State-dominated land holding with registered title and long leases
Land is largely state-held, with private rights taking the form of registered title in urban areas or long-term concessions. Registration follows the French cadastral model administered by the domain and land registry services.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National. The Direction des Domaines et de la Conservation Foncière maintains the register.
Governing law
- Loi 177/AN/91 on the land domain
- Décret 2001-0132 on land registration procedure
- Code civil provisions on ownership and security
In practice
Most land is in the state domain and private holding derives from grants, concessions or urban titles rather than from an unbroken chain of private ownership. In practice this makes the concession the central instrument for commercial development, particularly around the port and the free zones, where long leases rather than freehold underpin investment. Registered urban title does exist and can be mortgaged, which supports a limited mortgage market concentrated in Djibouti City. Customary pastoralist use rights over rangeland in the interior are socially real but weakly reflected in the register, so conflicts between formal grants and existing users are resolved administratively more often than judicially. Expropriation for public purpose is available to the state on compensation under the general civil-law framework.