Once
your application has been approved you will notified by the Lands Department.
You can then go to the local Lands office and sign your lease with the
government of Belize. You will pay your yearly lease which will cost anywhere
from $5-$17.50 depending on your lands location and size. Technically you
will be leasing the land from the government until you develop it, at which
time you can buy it from them at a cost of around $250.
Don't let the
phrase "developing" your land scare you off. This doesn't mean building
a resort on it.
Something as
simple as clearing the brush from your land and/or laying a foundation
on it will probably satisfy the government. Even if you don't build anything
on your land for years, if youv'e at least put some effort into it the
government will probably let you keep it. The idea is to give the land
to somebody who will do somehthing with it, and if they don't lease it
to somebody else who will.
Who qualifies
to lease and subsequently buy land at such a low cost from the government
of Belize? Citizens and Permanent Residents of Belize, with Belizean Social
Security numbers.Those are the only requirements, so it is quite possible
for a foreigner to qualify.
We are not
saying that there isn't any red tape involved but it is certainly minimal.
For example:
To become a
Permanent Resident of Belize can take as little as a year, costs $625 US,
and does not require that you actually live in Belize permanently.
You do not
need to hire a lawyer to apply nor invest a certain amount of money in
the country.
In the 1950's
5 Mennonite families originally from Canada emigrated to Belize,
seeking religious freedom. They got thousands of acres of, for $5 an acre.
They have transformed that "raw bush" as it's called in Belize to
farmland and today they literally feed the country.
Poultry, Diary
products, rice, corn and beans are just a few of the crops the Mennonites
raise. The year round sunshine gives them 2 growing seasons a year so succesfull
was their homesteading that today there several thousand Mennonites in
Belize.
If you would
like more information on Belize feel free to contact us at Preview Publishing,
Box 107, Corozal, Belize Tel/Fax 501-4-23406 Email:prepub@btl.net
Peaceful,
tropical and nestled on the Caribbean coast, Belize has an abundance
of something it's island neighbors lack... land.
It is twice the size of Jamaica and with a population of only 220,000,
sparsley scattered over it's 8,886 square miles it is largely devoid of
human settlement. As a foreigner not only can you buy land and own it
outright, the government of Belize will actually give you land practically
for free. Here is how it works: you apply to the Deparment of Lands
and Survey for a piece of land, generally they will assign you a parcel
of land, but at times you may be able to choose the piece of land you will
recieve. We had a friend who had his eye on a half acre not too far from
the international airport. He looked up the property on the government
survey map and found the number it had been assigned, and when he applied
for land he requested that particular piece and got it. He has since built
two beautiful houses on that land. 
