Pas Géométriques in Mauritius: What a Campement Lease Really Buys You

On the pas géométriques, you never own the land: you lease it, for a maximum of 60 years, on a strip of coastline that stays inalienable and remains the property of the State. Reselling that lease costs twice as much as reselling a freehold: a tax of 20% of the lease’s value, split equally between seller and buyer, against 10% in total for a freehold sale. And since the Finance Act 2026, if the buyer is a foreigner acquiring an apartment in a building of at least two floors on this type of land, the seller also owes an additional 10% duty.

What exactly is a pas géométrique

The pas géométriques are the reserved lands running along the Mauritian coastline, defined by the Arrêté of General Decaen of 5 May 1807 and codified since in the Pas Géométriques Act. Their width is measured from the line reached by the sea at high spring tide and can never be less than 81.21 metres. They form part of the domaine public: inalienable and imprescriptible, meaning they can never become private property, no matter how long someone occupies them.

That is the key difference with a freehold beachfront property, which also exists in Mauritius outside this reserved strip. On the pas géométriques, the best right a private individual can obtain is a lease granted by the minister responsible for lands.

The campement lease: what you can actually get

For a residence, the minister may grant a campement lease on a small portion of pas géométriques, either by private contract or by public auction. This lease comes with strict conditions:

• one person can hold only one campement lease at a time;
• its area cannot exceed one arpent and a quarter (0.5276 hectare), unless the plot cannot reasonably be divided, unless it is in the public interest, or unless the land is used for recreation by a registered club or for a bona fide religious, charitable or educational purpose;
• its duration cannot exceed 60 years.

The price is made up of a premium paid on signature and an annual rental, both set by an official scale that depends on the coastal zone. On the reference scale in force, the premium runs from 2.5 to 5 million rupees per arpent and the annual rental from 125,000 to 250,000 rupees per arpent depending on the zone, with a minimum annual rental per site of 10,000 to 25,000 rupees; this scale is revised every three years in line with cumulative inflation, capped at 15.7625% per three-year period, and the premium can be paid in instalments over five years. A plot without a sea frontage gets a 25% reduction on these amounts. Rent is always payable in advance: one month’s arrears after a formal notice is enough for the minister to cancel the lease and resume possession of the land, subject to compensating the lessee for existing plantations, after deducting any rent owed.

The general pas géométriques lease (outside campement sites) is capped at 30 years but can be extended twice, 15 years at a time, by the minister without a new auction: that is where the 60-year ceiling that also applies, through a separate mechanism, to the campement lease itself ultimately comes from.

Reselling this lease costs twice as much as a freehold sale

This is the point most buyers discover too late. Transferring a lease on State land, including a campement lease, triggers a specific tax on the transfer of leasehold rights, calculated on the open market value of the lease: the rate is 20%, payable in equal shares by the seller and the buyer, 10% each. By comparison, an ordinary freehold sale carries a 5% land transfer tax charged to the seller and a 5% registration duty charged to the buyer, 10% in total. A lease on the pas géométriques therefore costs twice as much to transfer as an equivalent freehold property.

Another difference worth knowing: the land transfer tax exemptions granted to certain property schemes (housing estates of at least five units, among others) explicitly do not apply to a property situated on the pas géométriques.

On one specific point, the law is actually more lenient for campement leases: in most pas géométriques leases, transferring the lease without the minister’s prior written consent triggers the automatic forfeiture of the lease and any buildings on it. That forfeiture clause does not apply to campement site leases as such. This does not, however, remove the need to declare the transfer or to pay the 20% tax: it is only a safeguard against losing the lease outright over a missed formality.

The annual taxes to plan for while you hold the lease

Two separate taxes apply every year, one on the leased land, the other on the building:

• the campement site tax, based on the area of the land, at a rate running from 2 to 6 rupees per square metre depending on the coastal zone, due every year by 31 July;
• the campement tax, based on the open market value of the building, at 0.5% a year, after deducting the site tax already paid and any local rates. It is not due if the property is the owner’s sole residence and its market value stays under 5 million rupees.

A late payment, on either of these two taxes, triggers a 10% surcharge on the amount due for the first month, then 2% for every further month, capped at 50% of the original amount.

Can a foreigner lease or buy on the pas géométriques

Every non-citizen needs authorisation, from the Prime Minister’s Office or the Economic Development Board depending on the case, before holding, disposing of, purchasing or otherwise acquiring any property in Mauritius, including a right over a lease. None of the usual routes open to foreigners lead simply to a personal campement lease:

• the route opened in 2022 for resident non-citizens wanting to buy a residential property worth at least 500,000 US dollars explicitly excludes a residential property situated on State land, pas géométriques included;
• the so-called “G+2” route, which allows a non-citizen to acquire, with authorisation from the Economic Development Board, an apartment worth at least 6 million rupees in a building of at least two floors above ground level, remains theoretically open even on State land, but it is built for a collective apartment building, not an individual campement site.

Since the Finance Act 2026 (Act No. 14 of 2026, assented to on 12 August 2026), this second route has become markedly more expensive to resell on this type of land. When a G+2 apartment situated on State land or on the pas géométriques is transferred to a non-citizen through this route, the seller must pay an additional duty of 10% of the value, on top of the ordinary duties. This additional duty does not apply where a sale agreement was signed before a notary prior to 19 June 2026.

What to check before committing

A campement lease is neither a purchase nor an investment comparable to a freehold villa. It is a time-limited right of occupation, on land that will always remain the State’s, with an exit cost twice as high as an equivalent freehold property. Before negotiating such a lease, or buying out a previous occupant’s lease, it is worth checking three things with a notary: the actual expiry date of the current lease, the exact amount of the premium already paid and the balance still owed, and the property’s status under the campement tax.

Sources and checks

• Pas Géométriques Act (Revised Laws of Mauritius) — Attorney-General’s Office
• Land (Duties and Taxes) Act — Ministry of Finance of Mauritius
• Non-Citizens (Property Restriction) Act — Attorney-General’s Office
• The Finance Act 2026 (Act No. 14 of 2026) — National Assembly of Mauritius
• Acquisition and Lease of Immovable Property by Non-Citizens for Business Purposes — Economic Development Board