A little less than 4% of land in Seychelles belongs to foreigners, according to a study carried out by the Ministry of Land Use and Habitat in 2002.  

This was revealed by Minister Joseph Belmont in last week's National Assembly session.

Minister Belmont said that when the survey was done for the first time in 1993, only 3.8% of the land was in the hands of foreigners.

Minister Belmont, who noted that his ministry had set up a new policy to encourage Seychellois to own more of the land, was answering a question put forward by the MNA for Anse Royale, Honourable Barry Faure, on how much land belonged to foreigners.

He said that the total of 3.9% of land occupied by foreigners is equivalent to 850 acres.

Minister Belmont noted that before 1978, a total of 4,138 acres of land was in the hands of foreigners. Since then, 65% of the land that belonged to foreigners had been returned to Seychellois. This means that 2,800 acres of land were given back to the local people.

Minister Belmont confirmed that since 1993, his ministry had decided to minimise the occupancy of the land belonging to foreigners to 5%, but added that nothing can be done to prevent foreigners from buying land because it was difficult to monitor the sale by private land owners. 

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