Property developer: licences, rules and first steps

This page is for property developers, established or starting out, in Togo, Senegal, Benin and Côte d'Ivoire. It sets out what the official texts require: the licence, approval of each scheme, the rules on selling off-plan, the guarantees owed to buyers, anti-money-laundering duties and the penalties. Each rule points to the text that lays it down; where a point could not be read in an official source, the page says so: not verified yet.

This is not a job advert. imonga employs no developers: it invites people in the trade to sign up free of charge, present their schemes and receive enquiries from buyers.

What does a property developer do?

A property developer starts a scheme, secures the land, raises the money, has the buildings put up, and then sells or lets the homes. The texts of the region describe the trade in much the same way. In Senegal, the 8 November 2016 framework law on social housing defines the developer as 'an operator who is lotisseur-constructeur' (both land subdivider and builder), who lawfully acquires land, designs the housing scheme or has it designed, raises the finance, builds or has the works built, markets the units and collects what is owed [1]. In Benin, the 1999 decree on the profession covers any individual or company that habitually takes the initiative for property projects and is responsible for coordinating the study, financing, execution, supervision and management [2].

In Côte d'Ivoire, the ministry responsible for housing describes the developer as a professional who designs, develops and coordinates property operations, from identifying the project through to completing and marketing the buildings [3]. The Construction and Housing Code itself speaks of the legal entity that carries out land development and building operations, in particular homes for people buying their first property [4].

The work repeats from one scheme to the next: check the land title, build the financial model, negotiate with a bank, sign up an architect and contractors, follow the site, draft reservation and sale contracts, hand over the keys. The developer carries the risk of the whole. If sales slow down or the site overruns, it is the developer's money and signature on the line, and the developer the buyers turn to.

Building to sell, or building for a client

The law separates two ways of working. In the first, the developer builds in order to sell and is the seller of a building yet to be built. Senegal's 2023 Construction Code defines that sale as one by which the seller undertakes to put up a building within a time limit set by the contract, concluded either for delivery on completion or as a sale off-plan (vente en l'état futur d'achèvement) [5]. Togo's Land and State Property Code of 14 June 2018 recognises the same sale in two forms: turnkey sale and off-plan sale [6].

In the second, the developer works for a client who keeps the land. This is the property development contract (contrat de promotion immobilière), which Senegal's Construction Code calls a mandate of common interest: the developer undertakes to have a building programme carried out for an agreed price, through building contracts, and to handle all or part of the legal, administrative and financial work [5]. The Ivorian code uses the same definition and adds the technical work [4].

The distinction has consequences. Under a mandate, the developer can bind the client to a loan or a disposal of property only under a special mandate, and answers for the obligations of the contractors it has engaged [5]. In a sale, the developer remains in charge of the works until acceptance and then owes the same guarantees as the builders, which pass to each later owner [5].

Two neighbouring trades have names of their own. In Benin, a developer whose business is limited to producing and selling serviced plots is called an aménageur, a land developer [2]. In Senegal, a développeur immobilier is at once land developer, subdivider where needed, and builder, working at the scale of a whole development zone [1]. In Côte d'Ivoire, the chapter of the code on estate agencies expressly does not apply to property developers and land developers, so an estate agent's licence does not stand in for a developer's [4].

Côte d'Ivoire: two approvals before you sell

Côte d'Ivoire has the most detailed regime of the four countries. The Construction and Housing Code first sets a condition on the person: anyone selling buildings yet to be built must, before starting, hold a ministerial licence (agrément) granted on grounds of competence, good character and solvency [4]. The minister responsible for housing grants it on the advice of a commission that includes representatives of the ministries of Economy and Finance, Trade, Justice, Security and the Environment [4]. The number of the law that enacted the code does not appear on the text published by the National Assembly: not verified yet.

The code then sets a condition on the project. Each scheme needs a technical approval before any advertising and before any marketing [4]. For that application even to be considered, the developer must hold land for which at least a provisional concession order (arrêté de concession provisoire) has been granted, and either its own funding or the written agreement of an approved bank [4]. Its head office must display a sign with the company name, address and trade register number [4].

The developer's licence application is filed in twenty copies and has two parts [3]. Part A covers the legal representative: a letter to the minister, proof of identity, a certificate of nationality, a criminal record extract, a certificate of residence in Côte d'Ivoire and a CV. Part B covers the company: trade register entry (RCCM), the notarised statement of subscribed and paid-up capital, articles of association, tax registration, a current tax clearance certificate, proof that land is available (ACD, reservation letter, land title or CMPF) with a land status report less than three months old, CVs and diplomas of a roads and utilities (VRD) engineer, a lawyer and an accountant or agreements with firms, signed agreements with an approved architecture practice, an approved planning practice and a VRD design office, insurance, and a letter of intent to finance from a bank established in Côte d'Ivoire [3]. Diplomas obtained abroad must be authenticated by the embassy of the country that issued them [3].

The fee is not verified yet: the government services portal gives 200,000 CFA francs [7], the ministry's page 201,000 CFA francs [3], payable at the land one-stop shop (Guichet unique du foncier). The portal states a processing time of three months [7]. Both sources agree on the term: the licence lasts five years, and renewal must be requested three months before it expires [3].

The sources also differ on who may apply. The portal lists individuals, associations and companies [7], whereas the code defines the developer as a legal entity [4] and the ministry's checklist is built around a company [3]. Whether a self-employed individual can hold the licence in their own name is not verified yet.

The ministry publishes the list of licensed developers. The version dated 31 August 2026 flags licences whose five-year term has run out and which need renewing [8]. A careful buyer checks it, and a developer has every reason to appear on it with a current licence.

Senegal: the 2023 Construction Code and approval for social housing

In Senegal the governing text has changed. Law No. 2023-21 of 29 December 2023 on the Construction Code, published in the Official Gazette of 18 January 2024 [9], repeals 'all earlier provisions to the contrary', expressly including Law No. 2009-23 of 8 July 2009, which carried the old code [5]. Any contract, template deed or sales brochure that still quotes the 2009 articles [10] needs bringing up to date.

The new code defines the property developer as an operator who lawfully acquires land, has the housing scheme designed, raises the finance, has the building done, markets the units and collects what is owed [5]. It gives developers a title of their own and devotes a chapter to sales of buildings yet to be built [5].

A property development contract must be in writing before any work starts. It states the land, the building and its specification, the cost estimates, the price and how it may be revised, the financing, the developer's fee, the time limit and the guarantee the developer provides for proper performance [5]. Without these terms the contract is void, though only the client can plead that, and only until the works are finished [5]. Before signature, the developer may neither demand nor even accept any payment, deposit or bill of exchange [5]. The law leaves the detail of the contract to the regulatory part of the code [5] and its implementing rules to a decree [5]. No decree made under the 2023 law was found for this page. Decree No. 2010-99 of 27 January 2010, made under the old code, staged the developer's fee up to ninety per cent on handover and required the developer's undertaking to be backed by a bank or insurer [11]; whether it still applies under the 2023 law is not verified yet.

The 2023 code adds a social mix rule that bears directly on blocks of flats. Where a municipal order provides for it, any scheme of more than thirty homes or more than a thousand square metres of floor space must make at least 20% of its family homes social housing, and the developer may agree with the local council the number, type and location of those homes [5].

The law still refers to an application for approval of the scheme: a property development contract can be relied on against third parties only if it is declared in that application [5]. The rules for that scheme approval, and whether developers need a personal licence outside social housing, are not verified yet in an official text.

Social housing does have an explicit approval. Law No. 2016-31 of 8 November 2016 provides that private developers who want plots of state land, notably in the new urban centres, sign an agreement and a specification and are approved by the minister responsible for housing, on the advice of the Commission for the Approval and Monitoring of Private Property Developers [1]. Approved developers receive tax advantages on the social housing they build [1]. In return, they send the minister the breakdown of their prices before works start and before any marketing [1]. A breach costs them the advantages, makes the exempted duties payable and can lead to withdrawal of the land and of the approval [1]. The intended buyers are first-time buyers whose income is below a threshold set by decree [1].

Benin: licence, scheme approval, certificate of conformity

Benin regulates the trade through a 1999 decree setting the conditions for practising as a property developer. The government secretariat's portal publishes a version dated 22 June 1999 [2] and a version dated 17 September 1999 marked as replacing the earlier copy [12]. The exact number of the later version, and whether a newer text has since replaced it, are not verified yet.

The principle is plain: anyone wishing to practise as a property developer must be licensed by the ministry responsible for town planning and housing [12]. The application includes civil status details, a list of licensed specialists in architecture, planning and engineering, registration on the trade register, the business licence (patente), a certificate of nationality, a criminal record extract, and a financial guarantee of at least ten million CFA francs provided by a financial institution governed by Beninese law [12]. A company adds its articles of association, the qualifications of its directors, the legal notice and a trade register extract less than three months old [12].

The application goes before a technical committee chaired by the minister, whose members include the order of architects and planners, the order of chartered surveyors, the Chamber of Notaries, the chamber of commerce and a representative of developers. On its advice, the minister issues an order granting licensed developer status [2]. A licensed developer must keep a registered office, display its official references on its documents and wherever it receives clients, and insure its professional liability [2].

Each scheme must then be approved by the minister. The file brings together the plans, the land title, the specification, the costs, the financing arrangements, the timetable, a completion guarantee from an approved financial institution and a ten-year structural damage guarantee from an insurer [2]. An approved scheme that has not started within two years must be updated and approved again [2]. Buildings may be put into use only once the minister has issued a certificate of conformity [12].

Togo: what the texts say, and what is still open

In Togo, no official text read for this page creates a licence specific to property developers. The question stays open: not verified yet. The trade nonetheless works within a clear frame, set mainly by Law No. 2018-005 of 14 June 2018 on the Land and State Property Code.

The code recognises sales of buildings yet to be built. It defines a turnkey sale as a building put up entirely by a developer at its own cost and then sold to a buyer, and an off-plan sale as one in which the price is paid as the works progress [6]. Above all, it lays down a rule that shapes every scheme: any transfer of ownership of real property is conditional, on pain of the contract being absolutely void, on the property being registered, and every sale must be preceded by that registration [6]. Deeds that transfer a right in land are drawn up by a notary [6].

A developer who subdivides land is a subdivider (lotisseur) under the code, and must hand over half the area of the land, in full ownership, for public roads and land reserved for public facilities, in line with planning law [6]. Subdividing land that has neither a land title nor one of the deeds listed in the code is punishable by a fine of 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 CFA francs and two to five years' imprisonment, or either penalty [6]. Building homes in a no-build zone carries a fine of 500,000 to 3,000,000 CFA francs [6].

On site, an inter-ministerial order of the Ministry of Town Planning, Housing and Land Reform sorts projects that need a building permit into categories A, B and C by size, height and number of occupants [13]. A geotechnical survey is required in every category except single-storey buildings, and private laboratories must have their reports certified by the national building and public works laboratory (LNBTP) [13].

Selling off-plan: reservations, stage payments, guarantees

Off-plan sales fund a large share of schemes, and this is where the law does most to protect buyers. The rules vary by country, but all of them tie the money paid to real progress on site.

In Côte d'Ivoire, no payment may be taken before the sale contract is signed, except the deposit under a reservation contract, or where buyers' payments are covered by a refund guarantee from an approved bank, financial institution or insurer [4]. Cumulative payments may not exceed 20% of the price when the foundations are finished, 60% when the building is weathertight and 90% on completion of the works [4]. No off-plan contract may be signed before the foundations are finished, nor before the seller has shown that the land is paid for, the design studies are settled, its tax affairs are in order and the completion guarantee is in place [4]. The seller must show buyers a reference home built on the site [4], and no document other than the reservation contract may precede the sale, on pain of absolute nullity [4].

In Senegal, an off-plan seller must take out a financial completion guarantee or a refund guarantee before the contract is even signed; if the seller runs out of money, the buyer can call on it, an administrator appointed by the court has the building finished, and the guarantor alone may then claim the balance of the price [5]. The sale is made by notarised deed setting out the plans, the price, the delivery date and the guarantee, and the co-ownership rules are handed over at signature [5]. No payment may be taken before signature or before it falls due [5]. A deposit under a preliminary reservation contract goes into a special account and is returned within three months if the sale falls through because of the seller, or if the contract offered departs abnormally from the reservation [5]. The payment stages of 35%, 70% and 95% of the price were set by the 2010 decree made under the old code [11]; the 2023 law sets none, and whether they still apply is not verified yet. The old code's seven-day cooling-off period does not appear in the 2023 chapter on sales of buildings yet to be built [5]: whether another text keeps it is not verified yet.

In Benin, the completion guarantee is part of the scheme approval file [2]. In Togo, the Land Code defines the off-plan sale without setting payment stages in the articles read [6]; the applicable stages are not verified yet.

The guarantees carry on after handover. In Senegal, the seller remains liable for visible defects until acceptance and for at least a month after the buyer moves in, the performance guarantee runs until the snags are cleared, and the ten-year guarantees end ten years after final acceptance, no longer provisional acceptance as under the old code [5]. In Côte d'Ivoire, the seller remains liable for visible defects until ninety days after the buyer takes possession [4].

Buyers' money: laundering, cash and suspicious transaction reports

Across the eight WAEMU (UEMOA) countries, Directive No. 02/2015/CM/UEMOA of 2 July 2015 sets the common base for anti-money-laundering rules. Among the persons it covers are property companies and estate agents, including letting agents [14]. It requires anyone who carries out, supervises or advises on property transactions to identify the parties to any purchase or sale they take part in [14].

Two rules bear directly on a developer's cash flow. Above a threshold set by the national authority, the price of a property sale may be paid only by bank transfer or cheque [14]; the amount of that threshold in each country is not verified yet. Covered persons must also report to the CENTIF, the national financial intelligence unit, any sums or transactions they suspect come from money laundering or terrorist financing [14].

For a developer, this comes down to a few habits: an identity document for every buyer who reserves, a bank trail for every stage payment, and one named person who decides whether to file a report. The same habits reassure buyers, who can see where their money goes.

Setting up: the register, the company, the team

Under OHADA law, buying property in order to resell it is a commercial act by nature, and anyone who makes a profession of it is a trader [15]. An individual must apply to the Trade and Personal Property Credit Register (RCCM) within the first month of trading; a company within a month of its formation [15].

In Togo, the business formalities centre (CFE) issues a single card combining the RCCM entry, the tax identification number and the social security (CNSS) number [16]. It advertises company formation in under four hours, with fees of 28,250 CFA francs for a company formed by a national of Togo or another ECOWAS state, and 33,250 CFA francs for others [16]. For Senegal, Benin and Côte d'Ivoire, formation fees and times were not read on an official portal for this page: not verified yet.

The legal form matters. In Côte d'Ivoire, the ministry's checklist assumes a company whose capital is declared before a notary [3]. In Burkina Faso, the explanatory memorandum to the 2023 bill states that a developer may in future only be a legal entity [17]. A team is expected too: a VRD engineer, a lawyer and an accountant, or agreements with firms, in Côte d'Ivoire [3]; licensed specialists in architecture, planning and engineering in Benin [12].

The risks: void contracts, stopped sites, prison

The penalties are aimed first at buyers' money. In Côte d'Ivoire, anyone who demands or accepts a payment in breach of the rules on off-plan sales or property development contracts, or who diverts the sums received, faces the penalties for embezzlement [4]. People convicted of forgery, theft, fraud, breach of trust, drug offences or misappropriation of public funds may not take part in these contracts [4]. Failing to insure building works is punishable by one to twelve months' imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 to 5,000,000 francs [4].

In Benin, practising without a licence, carrying out an unapproved scheme or putting buildings into use without a certificate of conformity leads to the works being stopped and to prosecution; carrying on after a stop order means the licence is cancelled [12]. The court may order the site to be brought into line or the buildings demolished [12].

In Senegal, a property development contract missing its compulsory terms is void, and the contracts the developer signed can no longer be enforced against the client [5]. Demanding or accepting a payment before the development contract is signed, or handling a reservation deposit outside the rules, is punishable by two years' imprisonment and a fine of 5,000,000 CFA francs, or either of them [5]. In Togo, the sale of unregistered property is absolutely void [6], and unlawful subdivision is punishable by imprisonment [6].

The most common risk is still the land. A poorly titled plot blocks scheme approval in Côte d'Ivoire, the sale in Togo and approval in Benin. The first check on any project is therefore the title, before the plans and before the price.

What about other countries?

In Burkina Faso, property development was governed by Law No. 57-2008/AN of 20 November 2008. A bill examined in June 2023 would limit the trade to legal entities and require the ministry's prior authorisation for any advertising [17]; the law as enacted is not verified yet.

For Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Gabon, Guinea, Morocco and Kenya, no primary source was opened for this page. The rules in those countries are not verified yet, and nothing should be inferred from their neighbours: a developer working there should ask the ministry responsible for housing in that country.

What imonga offers developers

This is not a job advert. imonga does not hire property developers: the platform invites professionals to sign up to present their business, list their properties or services and receive enquiries from private clients, in Africa and across the diaspora. Creating an account and a profile is free; the terms for listings are set out on the Pricing page. You remain independent, you set your own prices, and you remain bound by the rules of your country described above.

For a developer, the profile is a place to present each scheme with its official references (licence, building permit, land title where they exist), so that buyers can check them before they reserve. You can sign up on the account creation page.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a licence to be a property developer in Côte d'Ivoire?

Yes. Anyone selling buildings yet to be built needs a ministerial licence before starting, and each scheme needs a technical approval before any advertising or marketing [4]. The developer's licence lasts five years and is renewed three months before it expires [3].

Can a developer take money before the contract is signed?

In Côte d'Ivoire, no, apart from the deposit under a reservation contract or payments covered by a refund guarantee [4]. In Senegal, a developer may neither demand nor accept any payment before the property development contract is signed, on pain of two years' imprisonment and a fine of 5,000,000 CFA francs, or either of them [5].

Can I work as a property developer in Togo without a licence?

No official text read creates a developer's licence in Togo, so this point is not verified yet. The Land Code does require property to be registered before any sale, on pain of absolute nullity [6], and trading requires registration on the RCCM [15].

What financial guarantee is required in Benin?

The 1999 decree on the profession requires a financial guarantee of at least ten million CFA francs from a financial institution governed by Beninese law [12]. Whether the decree is still in force is not verified yet.

What rules apply to an off-plan sale in Senegal?

Since Law No. 2023-21 of 29 December 2023, which repealed the 2009 code, the seller takes out a completion or refund guarantee before contracting, makes the sale by notarised deed and takes no payment before signature [5]. The stage payments of 35%, 70% and 95% of the price came from the 2010 decree made under the old code [11]: whether they still apply is not verified yet, and neither is the seven-day cooling-off period, which the new text does not contain.

Is imonga recruiting property developers?

No. imonga does not hire anyone and pays no salary. Developers can open a free professional account to present their schemes and receive enquiries; the terms for listings are on the Pricing page.