- Gambia Urged to Modernise Property Taxes as Real Estate Market Expands
The Gambia could unlock a substantial new source of domestic revenue by modernising its property tax system, improving land registration and introducing a dedicated tax on real estate transfers, according to the International Monetary Fund.
In a technical assistance report released in April 2026, the Fund estimated that recurrent taxes on land and buildings currently generate just 0.15% of gross domestic product despite the expansion of the country’s real estate market.
Total revenue from recurrent taxes and other property-related charges amounts to roughly 0.30% of GDP, leaving collections significantly below the levels that could be achieved through stronger administration and a broader tax base.
The IMF said The Gambia could raise recurrent property tax revenue to about 0.90% of GDP under the existing rate structure. That would imply an additional revenue opportunity equivalent to roughly 0.75% of GDP without necessarily requiring a significant increase in headline tax rates.
The assessment identifies property taxation as one of the country’s most underdeveloped fiscal instruments at a time when the government is seeking to reduce dependence on external financing and strengthen its capacity to fund public services.
Unlike taxes on income and consumption, recurrent property taxes are generally considered difficult to avoid where ownership, occupation and land boundaries are properly recorded. They can also provide a relatively stable source of revenue for local governments because land and buildings cannot be moved outside a jurisdiction.
In The Gambia, however, outdated valuation rolls, incomplete property registration and weak enforcement have prevented local authorities from capturing the full value of rapidly expanding urban and residential development.
The IMF said many modern housing projects and property improvements were either absent from existing tax records or assessed using valuations that no longer reflected current market conditions.
Fragmented legislation and weak co-ordination among tax authorities, land agencies and local governments have added to the administrative difficulties.
The Fund recommended a wide-ranging reform programme centred on the modernisation of recurrent property taxation, the introduction of a dedicated Property Transfer Tax and the deployment of a national Land Information System.
The proposed system would combine land and property records with Geographic Information Systems, allowing authorities to identify buildings, map parcels and link taxable properties to location and valuation data.
Integration with digital payment platforms could also reduce collection costs, improve taxpayer convenience and create a clearer audit trail for payments received by local authorities.
The IMF proposed legislative changes that would permit local governments to register properties for tax purposes even where formal ownership documentation was initially unavailable.
Such a measure could allow authorities to bring occupied or developed properties into the tax net while separate land-title processes continued.
The approach would be particularly relevant in areas where customary tenure, incomplete documentation or informal development has made formal ownership difficult to establish.
The Fund also recommended attaching tax obligations directly to properties rather than relying solely on the identification of individual owners.
This would make unpaid taxes a charge against the property itself, strengthening enforcement and making it more difficult for liabilities to disappear when ownership is unclear or changes hands.
A better-designed property tax system could support more than revenue mobilisation, the report argued.
It could improve equity by requiring owners of higher-value land and buildings to contribute more towards public services, while strengthening land administration and increasing transparency in the property market.
The reforms could also deepen fiscal decentralisation by giving local authorities a more reliable revenue base for sanitation, roads, drainage and other municipal services.
The IMF encouraged the authorities to consider a tax on vacant land held for speculative purposes, although it advised that such a measure should be introduced only after the underlying legal and administrative systems had been strengthened.
A vacant-land tax could discourage owners from holding strategically located plots without development while urban expansion increases demand for housing and infrastructure.
But administering such a tax would require reliable information on ownership, land use, valuation and exemptions to avoid disputes and arbitrary enforcement.
Property transfers constitute another significant area for reform.
The IMF recommended replacing the existing stamp-duty system with a stand-alone Property Transfer Tax that would apply to the transfer of the property itself rather than merely to the legal documents associated with the transaction.
It suggested maintaining a rate of between 2.00% and 3.00%, supported by stronger anti-avoidance rules and improved information-sharing among the tax administration, land agencies and local governments.
Taxing the underlying transaction could reduce opportunities to avoid payment through changes in documentation, corporate structures or informal transfer arrangements.
The Fund also called for stronger valuation rules to prevent buyers and sellers from understating transaction values in order to reduce their tax liabilities.
Effective reform would require political support as well as technology.
Updating valuations can generate resistance from property owners who have benefited from low or outdated assessments, while stronger enforcement could expose long-standing weaknesses in municipal administration.
The IMF therefore recommended a phased approach that combines legal reform, institutional co-ordination, public communication and investment in administrative capacity.
The proposals form part of wider efforts to support The Gambia’s 2026–2030 Domestic Revenue Mobilization Strategy and its 2026–2035 National Land Policy.
Both frameworks are intended to strengthen public finances while improving the management of land resources and supporting more orderly urban development.
For The Gambia, the central policy challenge will be converting the rapid expansion of real estate into a dependable and equitable source of public revenue.
The IMF’s assessment suggests the country does not primarily face a shortage of taxable property. Its larger problem is the absence of a modern system capable of identifying, valuing and collecting revenue from it.
Closing that gap could give local and central authorities a more stable fiscal base while improving transparency across one of the economy’s fastest-changing asset markets.
