What a purchase really costs

Registration duty: 4% of the price

This is the item you can work out yourself. The standard rate of registration duty on property sales is 4%¹.

On a property advertised at 20 million FCFA, that comes to 800,000 FCFA, before any other cost. Build it into your budget from the first price discussion, not at the signing.

Charged on

The sale price

Rate

4%¹

Documents from the land registry (Conservation foncière)

These are the only costs whose fees are published and can be checked. The état foncier (land register statement), which shows the rights registered against a property on the day of the request, costs 3,000 FCFA and takes 2 days².

The état historique (historical statement), which lists the transfers already registered, is charged at 1,000 FCFA per entry, with a minimum of 3,000 FCFA³. The certificat de [[mutation|mutation]] de propriété foncière (certificate of transfer of land ownership) costs 15,000 FCFA and takes 15 days³.

État foncier

3,000 FCFA · 2 days²

Certificat de mutation

15,000 FCFA · 15 days³

ACD fees: what we can say, and what we cannot

What is established: the fees for an ACD (Arrêté de Concession Définitive, final concession order) application are assessed and notified as soon as the application is filed⁴. So you are not signing blind: you are told the amount at the start of the procedure.

What is not: the current amount. The public information sheet that gives figures dates from 2016, before the 2021 reform⁵. We do not reproduce it. The SIGFU portal does offer a “Demandes & frais associés” (applications and related fees) calculator, but it does not cover every commune: tested on 17 September 2026 for Bingerville, it replied that “la commune déclarée n’est pas encore prise en charge par le portail” (the commune entered is not yet covered by the portal)⁶.

Fees notified

When the application is filed⁴

Calculator

sigfu.gouv.ci › Services⁶

The tax for establishing the land title

An ACD also involves a tax for establishing the [[titre-foncier|titre foncier (land title)]] (taxe d’établissement du titre foncier), calculated on the market value of the property, at a rate set by the finance act⁷.

It exists, it is based on the value of the property, and its rate changes with each finance act: we have not read any official source giving the rate that applies today. We will not put forward any figure here.

Notary’s fees: a scale we could not find

The rule is clear: a notary may not charge any fees or duties other than those set by decree⁸. In other words, their fees are not made up case by case.

But we have not found that decree published anywhere. So we cannot give either a percentage or a range. Be wary of any website that tells you “notary’s fees in Côte d’Ivoire are x%”: ask for its source.

Regulation

Scale set by decree⁸

Boundary survey, surveyor, architect: get them priced

Buying a plot often means a visit from a chartered surveyor (géomètre-expert) to establish the boundaries, and a building project means an architect.

Here again, no official scale has been found for the cost of a boundary survey (bornage) or for architects’ fees. The ranges circulating online are not backed by any source we have been able to read: we do not reproduce them.

Building an honest budget from abroad

Add up what can be priced: the price, the 4% registration duty¹, the land registry documents²³. Then set aside a sum for what cannot: ACD fees notified when the application is filed⁴, the land title tax⁷, the notary’s fees⁸, the boundary survey.

The right reflex is not to look for a total online, it is to insist on a written breakdown of every item before you pay a single franc. A professional who refuses to put figures in writing is telling you something.