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Buying property in Haiti

Last activity 02 May 2013 by sander-martijn

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Christine

Hi,

can a foreigner buy property in Haiti?

If so, is it complicated? What is the process of purchasing a property in Haiti?

Any tips for buying property, such as a check-list of items to verify ?

Thanks in advance for participating!

Christine

warriorbjj

IDK much.  But from what I have read it is complicated.  I think it is easy to buy land from someone that really doesn't own it.  It is difficult to tell who actually owns much of the land; from what I have read.  But I am intereted myself.

carlosmessi

If you are not married to a haitian, haitian law forbid foreigners to buy land in the country. But I've seen foreigners buying I don't quite know if they are married to a haitian or not.

sander-martijn

My understanding is that it was illegal in Haiti for foreigners to buy property in Haiti until the (illegal) U.S. occupation under Woodrow Wilson - the U.S. "gave" Haiti a new constitution allowing foreigners to own land, stating it was good for them if foreign investment could come in. This of course, has generally not been the case as mostly all it's done is create sweatshops that pay 20 cents per day.

It has helped a little - allowing digicel, free hospitals (HAS and Paul Farmer's), power companies and other things Haiti did not have the means to build on their own. But mostly it has just created extremely cheap labor for greedy companies.

Thus it is possible, but very complicated, and I don't know the whole process. Also as warriorbjj stated, one of the hardest parts is figuring out who owns the land and who is selling.

sander-martijn

carlosmessi somehow you are wrong about this because I personally know many foreigners that own land in Haiti that are not married to Haitians.