Land transfer

The Land Transfer Law (GVG) is intended to preserve or convey land for use by its owners in order to ensure the broadest possible distribution of land ownership that is socially tolerable and commensurate with the size of the land. Land shall be reserved for those who need it for residential or business use. At the same time, a concentration of land in the hands of a few persons as well as speculative land acquisition shall be prevented.

Authorisation requirement

To achieve this goal, the acquisition of ownership of land located in Liechtenstein (including co-ownership of land) is subject to approval by the land transfer authority, with a few exceptions. Equal to the acquisition of ownership of land is the acquisition of special rights to land, such as building rights, purchase, pre-emption and repurchase rights or other rights such as long-term rental or lease agreements.

Land transfer authority

The land transfer authority is the Office of Justice. The land transfer authority is responsible for all decisions under land transfer law in connection with the acquisition of ownership of property in the domestic market. Legal transactions requiring approval must therefore be submitted to the land transfer authority within four months of their conclusion.

The Land Transaction Authority exercises supervision over foundations, institutions without members and foundation-like trust enterprises with personality with regard to the acquisition or holding of title to domestic real property.

Contact: [email protected]

Prerequisite for the granting of authorisation

Permission to acquire ownership of land shall be granted if either:

• there is a legitimate interest in the intended acquisition of ownership of the land in question; or
• any other of the statutory requirements is met.

Application for the granting of permission

The acquirer of a plot of land must submit to the land transfer authority any legal transaction requiring approval using an official form. The form can be obtained either electronically or in paper form from the land transfer authority.

The application must be accompanied by the enclosures listed in the appendix to the application form.

Application for determination of compliance with a condition

Upon application by the acquirer, the fulfillment of conditions shall be determined and, if necessary, their deletion from the land register or commercial register shall be ordered. The form can be obtained either electronically or in paper form from the land transfer authority.

Caution: The land transfer authority approval does not include the property law review and approval of the legal transaction. This is done separately before the registration of the relevant legal transaction in the land register.