Land Rent in Tanzania: How to Check Your Assessment and Pay
How to look up your land rent assessment on the Ministry of Lands system, pay it through GePG, avoid late-payment interest, fix a wrong bill and tell land rent apart from property tax.
Short answer: you can check your land rent assessment online at the Ministry of Lands self-assessment portal, landrent.lands.go.tz. Plots in Arusha, Dodoma, Mbeya, Tanga, Mwanza and some other regions are handled through e-Ardhi instead. Search by title number or plot ID to get the bill and its GePG control number, then pay at a bank or by mobile money. Land rent falls due on 1 July, the start of the government financial year. According to the Ministry, you have six months to pay without interest. After that, interest of 0.5% per month runs on the unpaid amount, rising to 1% per month once rent has been unpaid for more than 12 months.
What land rent is
All land in mainland Tanzania is public land vested in the President. A title deed, the Right of Occupancy, lets you occupy and use a plot for a set term. In return you pay the government an annual rent, which is land rent (kodi ya pango la ardhi). It is collected by the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development under the Commissioner for Lands. It is payable every year whether the plot is built on, empty or rented out, and arrears are tied to the plot, so they normally have to be cleared before the title can be transferred.
The amount depends on the plot's area, its permitted use (residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural and so on) and its location. The rates are set by the Ministry, and the assessment applies them to the details on your title. To get a rough figure first, try our land rent calculator. Your assessment on the Ministry portal is the only figure that counts.
How to check your land rent assessment online
- Open the self-assessment form at landrent.lands.go.tz. It is titled Fomu ya Makadirio ya Kodi ya Ardhi, the land rent assessment form. If your plot is in Arusha, Dodoma, Mbeya, Tanga or Mwanza, the page sends you to e-Ardhi (eardhi.lands.go.tz), the Ministry's newer land information system, which also covers some other regions.
- Choose the owner type: individual (Binafsi) or institution (Taasisi).
- Select the region and district where the plot is.
- Search by title number (Namba ya Hati) or by plot ID (ID ya Kiwanja). If you search by plot details, enter the area (Eneo), block (Kitalu) and plot or farm number.
- Press "Kadiria" to generate the assessment. The result shows what is due, including any arrears, and a GePG control number for payment.
Two other official channels work too. The Ministry's Ardhi Kiganjani mobile app is linked from lands.go.tz. The Ministry of Finance's GePG Tanzania app has a land rent lookup by region and district and can find a bill by control number. Both are useful if the website is slow at the end of the financial year.
The assessment uses the details recorded for your title. Before paying, check the plot number, area and land use against your title deed. If any of these are wrong, the bill is wrong too. See "If the bill is wrong" below.
How to pay land rent through GePG
Land rent is paid through the Government Electronic Payment Gateway (GePG), the same system used for most government bills. All you need is the control number from your assessment.
- Bank: pay at the counter, through internet banking or the bank's app, at any bank that accepts GePG payments, using the control number as the reference.
- Mobile money: open the government payments option in your wallet's menu, enter the control number and confirm the amount and the payee before approving.
- Check the payment: the GePG Tanzania app can confirm a payment using the control number, your mobile number, the GePG receipt, the bank receipt or the mobile operator's receipt.
Keep the receipt with the title deed. You will need proof that land rent is paid up whenever you do something with the title, such as a sale, a transfer, a mortgage or a building permit. Arrears have to be cleared before the land office will process those. If you are selling or buying, see our property transfer cost and stamp duty tools for the other costs involved.
A control number is tied to a particular bill. If you return weeks later, or the amount has changed because interest was added, generate a new assessment rather than reusing an old control number.
Due date and penalties for late payment
| When | What applies |
|---|---|
| 1 July | Annual land rent for the new financial year falls due |
| July to December (first six months) | Pay with no interest |
| After six months | Interest of 0.5% per month on the unpaid amount until it is paid |
| Unpaid for more than 12 months | Interest rises to 1% per month |
The Deputy Minister for Lands set out these rules in Parliament in September 2026. He said the rate had been cut to 0.5% a month in 2025. The 0.5%/1% structure itself goes back to the Finance Act 2022 amendments to the Land Act. Before that, the Land Act charged 1% a month once rent had been unpaid for six months. Earlier rules under the old Land (Rent and Service Charge) Act included a one-off 25% surcharge, and you will still see that figure quoted online. It is not how interest on arrears is described today.
Interest is not the only risk. Rent that stays unpaid can lead the Commissioner for Lands to take recovery action, and in serious cases non-payment of rent can put the Right of Occupancy itself at risk of revocation. Paying in the first six months avoids all of this.
If the land rent bill is wrong
Most wrong bills come from one of four problems: an outdated area (for example a plot that was subdivided), the wrong land use (a residential plot recorded as commercial), arrears already paid that the system has not recorded, or the wrong owner after a transfer. To fix it:
- Do not ignore the bill. Interest keeps running on whatever the system shows as unpaid.
- Collect your evidence: a copy of the title deed, the approved survey plan, the receipts or GePG references for past payments, and any change-of-use or transfer approvals.
- Go to the land office that administers the plot, which is the land office at your district or municipal council or the regional Ministry of Lands office. Ask in writing for the record to be corrected and the assessment reissued.
- Get a written acknowledgement, then check the portal again to confirm the record has changed before you pay the corrected amount.
We have not found an official deadline for objecting to a land rent assessment, so raise the problem as soon as you see it. Ask the land office whether you should pay the part you do not dispute in the meantime.
Land rent vs property tax
People often confuse these two charges, and some pay one thinking it covers the other. It does not.
| Land rent (kodi ya pango la ardhi) | Property tax (kodi ya majengo) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is charged on | The land: the right to occupy a surveyed plot | The buildings on the land |
| Who collects it | Ministry of Lands (Commissioner for Lands) | Collected for local government authorities; the collection method has changed several times in recent years |
| Who pays | The holder of the Right of Occupancy | The owner of the building |
| Applies to empty plots? | Yes | No buildings, no property tax |
| How you pay | Assessment and GePG control number from the Ministry | Through the channel the government currently prescribes; check with your council |
A titled plot with a house usually owes both. A surveyed but unbuilt plot owes land rent only. Because the property tax collection arrangements have been changed more than once, confirm the current method with your council or TRA rather than relying on an old guide.
Practical tips for landholders and businesses
- Diarise July. Put land rent in your annual calendar next to your other statutory payments. Our 2026 tax calendar covers the TRA dates.
- Keep one folder per plot: the title, the survey plan, every year's GePG receipt and any correspondence with the land office.
- Before buying land, run the seller's title number through the portal yourself and make clearing any arrears a condition of the sale.
- Companies with several plots should record land rent as a separate expense line by plot, so arrears on a branch site or warehouse do not stay hidden.
If your business holds land across several sites, keeping these annual obligations in one place helps. In Tawala Accounting you can set land rent up as a recurring bill for each property, so the July due date appears with your other payables.
Sources: Ministry of Lands land rent self-assessment portal (landrent.lands.go.tz) and lands.go.tz (e-Ardhi, Ardhi Kiganjani); GePG Tanzania app listing (Ministry of Finance): land rent lookup and payment verification; Daily News, "Land rent interest rules clarified" (5 September 2026), reporting the Deputy Minister for Lands in Parliament; EY tax alert on the Finance Act 2022 (Land Act interest amendments). Checked 24 October 2026.