Country-wide policy
The Alien's Land Holding Licence
A non-national cannot simply buy land here. The Aliens (Land Holding Regulation) Act, Chapter 316, requires a licence, and the licence is not a registry formality: the Governor-General's assignment of portfolios lists "Alien's Landholding Licences" among the Prime Minister's own subjects, immediately after citizenship, residency and work permits. Parliament's record shows the Act amended in 1993, 1996, 2000 and most recently by Act No. 13 of 2022. None of those texts is published, so the fee, the conditions, any development obligation and any exemption for CARICOM or OECS nationals are all unknown.
Topics it changes
What it requires
- A licence under the Aliens (Land Holding Regulation) Act, Chapter 316, before a non-national holds land
- The application is dealt with in the Prime Minister's Office
At a glance
- Statute
- Aliens (Land Holding Regulation) Act, Chapter 316
The chapter number comes from the long title of Act No. 13 of 2022 as recorded by the House of Assembly.
- Amendments on record
- 1993, 1996, 2000 and Act No. 13 of 2022
From the House of Assembly's year-by-year records. The 2022 amendment was published on 11 October 2022.
- Who decides
- The Prime Minister's Office
Alien's landholding licences are a subject assigned to the Prime Minister, alongside citizenship, residency and work permits.
- Fee
- Not published
What we have of the Aliens (Land Holding Regulation) Act is the record of the Acts that amended it, quoted here, rather than the Act or its fee schedule. No figure is published in anything we read.
- Exemption for CARICOM or OECS nationals
- Not established
The CSME brochure says a skilled national is entitled to access to land in the host country for residential or business purposes, which is a statement about the regional regime and not about this Act.
Four decisions in one office
The Schedule to the Governor-General's assignment of subjects to the Prime Minister reads, in order: Prime Minister's Office, co-ordination of government business, Cabinet Secretariat, citizenship, residency, work permits, alien's landholding licences. Whether a foreigner may live here, work here, own land here and become a citizen here are four decisions taken in the same place, by the head of government. That is unusual even within the Eastern Caribbean, where the equivalents normally sit with a minister of national security or of legal affairs, and it is worth knowing before assuming any of them is an administrative process with published criteria.
What the law says
«An Act to amend the Aliens (Land Holding Regulation) Act, Chapter 316.»About this source
Parliament's own record. Publishes, for every year from 1993 to 2025, a table of every Act passed: long title, short title, dates of first reading, second and third readings, assent, publication and proclamation, and the Act number. Also publishes the Saint Vincent Constitution Order 1979. This table is the only published index of Vincentian legislation and is what establishes that an Act exists, what it amends, which Chapter it belongs to and exactly when it came into force.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must never be cited for what an Act says. It carries no text of any Act and never has. It must not be cited for anything before 1993, where its record begins, nor for 2026, for which no table has yet been posted - use the Gazette's weekly legislation notices for that. The proclamation column is empty for almost every Act, which means a proclamation is not recorded, not that commencement did not happen; where it is filled, as for Act No. 22 of 2011, it is reliable. Extraction of the date columns is unreliable: the 2006, 2011 and 2024 tables render some dates as formulas and the 2025 table uses full-width commas, so a date quoted from them should be checked against the PDF. The Constitution Order it publishes is a 21-page scan with no text layer.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Bill for an Act to amend the Aliens ( Land-Holding Legislation) Act»Quoted with the record's own naming, which differs from the 2022 entry's.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Parliament's own record. Publishes, for every year from 1993 to 2025, a table of every Act passed: long title, short title, dates of first reading, second and third readings, assent, publication and proclamation, and the Act number. Also publishes the Saint Vincent Constitution Order 1979. This table is the only published index of Vincentian legislation and is what establishes that an Act exists, what it amends, which Chapter it belongs to and exactly when it came into force.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It must never be cited for what an Act says. It carries no text of any Act and never has. It must not be cited for anything before 1993, where its record begins, nor for 2026, for which no table has yet been posted - use the Gazette's weekly legislation notices for that. The proclamation column is empty for almost every Act, which means a proclamation is not recorded, not that commencement did not happen; where it is filled, as for Act No. 22 of 2011, it is reliable. Extraction of the date columns is unreliable: the 2006, 2011 and 2024 tables render some dates as formulas and the 2025 table uses full-width commas, so a date quoted from them should be checked against the PDF. The Constitution Order it publishes is a 21-page scan with no text layer.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Alien's Landholding Licences»One line of the Schedule, between work permits and the Public Service Commission.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The State's gazette, published weekly and archived online from 2016. Each issue opens with a Legislations notice naming every Act and every Statutory Rule and Order published that week, and carries Governor-General's notices, including the assignment of departments and subjects to each Minister under section 53 of the Constitution. It is the authoritative record that an instrument exists and of the date it was published.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must never be cited for the content of an Act or a Statutory Rule and Order. The notice says in terms that the instruments 'can be purchased at the Government Printing Office, Campden Park Industrial Estate' - the issue announces them and does not contain them. A handful of Statutory Rules and Orders are posted as separate PDFs beside the 2026 issues; most are not. It must also not be cited for anything before 2016, which is where the online archive starts. File names are not a reliable guide to contents: the file named Gazette_No50_2025.pdf contains issue No. 40 of 30 July 2025.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source
«Skilled nationals would be entitled to access
to land in the host country for residential or
business purposes.»A statement about the regional regime. Whether it is reflected in an exemption under Chapter 316 is not something we could check.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The ministry that holds the CARICOM and CSME portfolio and the national CSME focal point. Publishes the Government's CARICOM Free Movement Regime information note of October 2025, which is the only published statement of how full free movement actually works here - indefinite stay on arrival, registration with National Security, schooling, health care, National Insurance, tools of trade and driving licences. Also hosts the Government's own copies of the Revised Treaty of Basseterre with its Protocol and the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, and an undated CSME skills brochure.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: The information note and the CSME pages describe a regime; they are not the implementing instruments, which are Acts 15 and 16 of 2025 and S.R. & O. 18 and 19 of 2025 and are not published. The skills brochure is undated, names the ministry under a former title and lists skills categories that may no longer match the law. Its visa requirements PDF of July 2020 is about Vincentians travelling abroad and must never be cited for who may enter Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
We re-read it every 45 days. More about this source
Practical notes
No fee, condition, time limit or exemption under the Aliens (Land Holding Regulation) Act can be stated. The Act and all four of its recorded amendments are sold at the Government Printing Office and published nowhere online.
Saint Kitts and Nevis and Dominica both have alien landholding licence regimes whose statutes can be read. The comparison on this site is therefore asymmetric: the Vincentian entry records that the requirement exists and nothing about how it works.