This is the best option for anyone wanting to tailor a lease

with conditions that suit your future use of the land – something we had in mind when drafting contracts with landowners! Sadly, people who buy here, sometimes buy leases which simply do not allow them to do what they want – it is best to be specific in the terms and conditions of the lease itself.

One of the great pleasures of leasing in the rural area, is getting to know the families of the landowners and knowing you are contributing to their future and NOT paying developers who have underpaid landowners – this is why we included the landowners in our leases. Look after them and they will look after you. We are proud to call them our partners as you will.

We have many current contracts to lease land from Landowners in the areas listed on each opportunity – these are assignable to YOU for the price listed.

In these cases, you replace us as the future Lessee and we also assign across our interest in current Certificates of Negotiator with the landowner’s consent. The Certificates are legal documents and can be amended to replace you on presentation of the Deed to the Lands Department. We have this process in hand for each opportunity. These are valuable documents.

The process involves signing the Deed of Assignment and payment to us upfront, the costs shown on each assignment opportunity description page (link). These reflect actual costs to date, advances already made to the landowner and our fee for time spent to obtain negotiator status and the contract.

We strongly recommend you continue to use us to complete all preparations to take the “virgin” land to lease. We give estimates of our fee in each instance so there are no surprises for you at a later stage. In some cases we already have survey plans completed but in most this will have to be done as a first step. By taking assignment, you agree to fund these costs - estimates of the costs are also shown on each description page.

The big advantage to you in going via this route is that you only pay the lease premium as valued by the Vanuatu Lands Department, not the amount set by developers and agents in larger subdivisions which are based on “freehold” prices – there is NO freehold land in Vanuatu. You can arrange to have 75+75 year option type leases if required.

NOTE: the task of first obtaining the status of negotiator is an arduous one with many processes and departments to go through. Whilst this in itself does not guarantee you will obtain the lease, our contract with the landowner will stand you in good stead and you can be assured they are waiting for you to take over and do something in this beautiful part of the world.

It can take up to 18 months to obtain a Certificate of Negotiator once all processes have been undertaken. We have done all of this work already. This is not anyone’s fault but there is a lot on the government checklist to verify – and all of this is done prior to the issue of the Certificate of Negotiator.

The steps to be taken after taking assignment of our contract will be straightforward and enjoyable experiences for both you and the landowner.

These are:

•    Arrange to survey the land to be leased

•    Approval of Survey plan and registration thereof by the Survey Director in the Lands Department, including allocation of a Title number

•    Obtain Government Valuation of land, Lease Premium and future annual Rent figure (similar to rates)

•    Preparation and execution of the lease once registered survey plans are received

•    Submission to Director of Lands for execution by the Minister (or The Director).

•    Once returned, submission to the Stamp Duties office for stamping

•    Submission to the Land Records office for Registration of the lease on the master register

This process can take from one month to three months but new streamlined procedures are to be introduced soon which will shorten this time considerably.

If taking an assignment of contract, we walk you through the process of land ownership via 75 year Leases from the outset, based on government valuations of land, lease premium and annual rent.

In some cases these steps have already been taken.  In most, cases opportunities exist for investors to come in at the survey stage with landowners – this is useful to determine exactly how much land is required from the owner.

We will guide you through each step after the assignment.