Commercial leases, offices and housing: renting buildings under contract law, sub-leases of land rights, filing the lease with RRA, rent in Rwandan francs under the 2025 foreign-currency rules, rental income tax, VAT and property tax, condominiums, expatriate housing and affordable housing incentives

What law governs a lease of a building

Most foreign investors in Rwanda start in rented premises: an office in a Kigali tower, a warehouse near the airport or a serviced plot in a special economic zone, and homes for expatriate staff. The guide has found no Rwandan statute dedicated to commercial tenancies, with fixed terms, security of tenure or rent control of the kind found in some other jurisdictions. A lease of a building or part of a building is therefore a contract, governed by Law N° 45/2011 of 25/11/2011 governing contracts (Official Gazette nº 04bis of 23/01/2012) and, above all, by what the parties write. Notice periods, deposits, rent review, repair obligations, break rights and the consequences of default are matters for the lease itself; the guide does not state default figures for them because no statutory rule has been verified. General contract formation, interpretation and remedies are covered in Commercial contracts in Rwanda, and the courts and arbitration options for a lease dispute in The court system and choice of forum.

Three statutes add mandatory rules. The Land Law governs any lease or sub-lease of land rights; the tax law on decentralised entities requires the lease to be written and filed; and the 2025 foreign-currency rules decide in what currency the rent may be priced and paid. Each is taken in turn below, followed by condominium units, expatriate housing and affordable housing.

Leases and sub-leases of land rights

Where the tenant takes land itself, not only space in a building, the Land Law applies. Article 21 lists lease and sub-lease among the ways land rights are transferred, Article 22 requires the consent of everyone registered on the title (and of both spouses where they hold jointly, even if one is not registered), and Article 26 allows a holder of an emphyteutic lease or freehold to sub-lease by written contract. A sub-lease granted by the representative of a minor or a person without legal capacity cannot exceed five years, renewable (Article 27). A sub-lease of agricultural, livestock or forestry land for five years or more must be registered in the land register, and registration of a shorter one is optional (Article 28); Ministerial Order N° 009/MoE/22 of 12/05/2022 sets the modalities for sub-leasing farm land.

For other land, the Land Law does not expressly require a sub-lease to be registered, but Article 24 provides that a transfer of land rights is valid upon its registration in the land register. A tenant taking a long ground lease of a commercial plot, or one that intends to mortgage its interest or build on the land, should therefore register its right so that it binds buyers, lenders and the State. The procedure is in Land registration, titles and due diligence.

A sub-lease can never be longer or stronger than the head lease. Emphyteutic leases of residential, commercial and industrial land run for 49 years under Article 18 of Prime Minister's Order N° 008/03 of 03/07/2022, and a foreign holder that fails to apply in writing at least 90 days before expiry loses its rights (Article 20). A tenant should check the landlord's remaining term and, where the landlord is foreign, its renewal position.

The written lease and the 15-day filing

Article 41 of Law N° 048/2023 of 05/09/2023 determining the sources of revenue and property of decentralized entities provides that a rental contract for immovable property is in writing and signed by the parties, and that a copy is submitted to the tax administration within 15 days of signature. The rule is framed as a tax compliance duty of the landlord, since the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) collects rental income tax for the Districts, but a corporate tenant should ask for evidence of filing: an unfiled lease is a red flag in due diligence and invites disputes about the rent actually agreed. An oral or unsigned arrangement for a commercial building should not be accepted.

Where the premises are mortgaged, the landlord's lender matters too. The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) guide to the mortgage law states that once a property is in the mortgage register the owner cannot transfer, sell, lease or donate it without the lender's prior approval, and Article 7 of Law N° 10/2009 of 14/05/2009 on mortgages bars both parties from exercising other rights over the security within the period in the mortgage contract. A tenant should search the mortgage register and, for a significant lease, obtain the lender's consent (Mortgages, security and the real estate business).

Rent in Rwandan francs: the 2025 foreign-currency rules

Rents in Kigali have long been quoted in US dollars. That practice now carries real risk. Article 39(6) of Law N° 033/2026 of 24/07/2026 governing the National Bank of Rwanda presumes every monetary obligation or transaction in Rwanda to be expressed and settled in Rwandan francs unless other laws provide otherwise, and the old allowance for currency "lawfully agreed upon between the parties" has gone. Regulations N° 89/2025 of 23/05/2025 amending Regulation N° 42/2022 on foreign exchange operations define pricing in foreign currency to include displaying, quoting, advertising, requesting, invoicing and fixing contract prices in foreign currency. Pricing without permission is punished by a fine of RWF 5,000,000, or RWF 10,000,000 for a repeat breach, and transacting without permission by a fine of 50% of the amount, or 100% on repetition (new Article 34).

The exceptions are in Directive N° 4230/2025-00042 of 17/09/2025 of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR). Its Article 4 deems certain persons authorised to transact in foreign currency, including real estate companies holding an investment certificate approved by RDB to transact in foreign currency, suppliers to diplomatic missions and international organisations, suppliers to expatriates and to persons with foreign-sourced income, and anyone the BNR authorises. Even an authorised landlord may not refuse Rwandan francs or compel payment in foreign currency unless the parties agree, and any price shown in foreign currency must also show the franc equivalent at the BNR daily average rate without a surcharge. Others may apply to the BNR through its e-correspondence portal; the BNR decides within 20 working days, extendable once by 10, after which silence counts as approval. Contracts that predated the Directive had six months from its publication to comply (Article 12); the date of its publication in the Official Gazette has not been located, but on any reading that period had ended well before 10 October 2026. The full regime is in Foreign exchange rules.

Tax on rent: rental income tax, corporate tax, VAT and property tax

Who pays what depends on the landlord. An individual landlord, or another person not subject to corporate income tax, pays rental income tax to the District under Articles 39 to 46 of Law N° 048/2023 on income from rented buildings, improvements and other immovable property in Rwanda. The rates are 0% on annual rental income up to RWF 180,000, 20% from RWF 180,001 to RWF 1,000,000 and 30% above RWF 1,000,000 (Article 42). The taxable amount is gross rent less a deemed 50% for maintenance and upkeep, and less the actual bank interest paid on a loan to build or buy the property (Article 43). The declaration is due by 31 January each year (Article 44). A company landlord instead includes the rent in its taxable profit for corporate income tax.

Value added tax follows the type of letting. After Law N° 009/2025 of 27/05/2025 amended Law N° 049/2023 on value added tax with effect from 29 May 2025, residential lettings of more than 90 days remain exempt, so a VAT-registered landlord of offices, shops or warehouses charges VAT at the standard rate of 18%, which a VAT-registered tenant can usually recover (VAT and electronic invoicing). Immovable property tax is due from the owner, usufructuary or deemed owner, at 0.3% of the market value of a commercial building and its plot and 0.1% for industrial premises (Article 16), with land tax on the plot set by the council within the national bands; both are declared and paid by 31 December. A lease should say expressly whether these taxes are passed on to the tenant. The rates and bands are set out in Land tax, property tax and transfer costs.

Condominium units: offices and apartments in shared buildings

Many Kigali offices and apartments are units in buildings divided under Law N° 15/2010 of 07/05/2010 creating and organizing condominiums and setting up procedures for their registration (Official Gazette n° special of 14/05/2010). A unit may be sold, leased or mortgaged (Article 16), and each unit together with its share of the common parts is registered as a separate parcel and taxed separately (Article 25). Article 25 also makes owners, tenants and lessees liable for the taxes on a unit, so a tenant of a unit should require the owner to keep them paid. Condominium plots and their common parts are exempt from immovable property tax under Article 12 of Law N° 048/2023, which leaves the units themselves taxable.

Whether a foreign individual may buy a residential unit for personal use is less clear than many sales brochures suggest. The Land Law gives foreigners rights over land only by emphyteutic lease or concession and only for investment (Article 16); the high net worth individual category in Article 2(22) of Law N° 006/2021 refers to acquiring high-end property of at least USD 500,000 but does not change the tenure the Land Law allows. The guide has found no provision that addresses a foreigner's purchase of a residential condominium unit as such, so a foreign buyer should obtain written confirmation from the National Land Authority (NLA) that the transfer will be registered before paying a deposit (How foreign investors access land).

Housing for expatriate staff

A foreign individual may rent a house or apartment without restriction: Article 16 of the Land Law limits a foreigner's land rights, not tenancies of buildings. The tax treatment is what employers need to plan. Under Article 18 of Law N° 027/2022 of 20/10/2022 establishing taxes on income, housing provided by the employer is a benefit in kind valued at 20% of the employee's cash employment income, and rent paid directly by the employer to the landlord is taxed as cash income, so a housing allowance or a company-paid lease is part of the PAYE base (Personal income tax, PAYE and expatriates). Where the employer pays rent to an individual landlord in foreign currency, the landlord must itself fall within an authorised category; suppliers to expatriates are deemed authorised under the 2025 Directive, but the franc-equivalent and no-refusal conditions still apply.

Affordable housing and housing developers

Affordable housing is one of the twelve priority economic sectors in Article 4 of Law N° 006/2021 of 05/02/2021 on Investment Promotion and Facilitation, and the annex to that law gives registered investors developing affordable housing that meet its criteria a preferential corporate income tax rate of 15%. Government support to affordable housing projects is organised under Prime Minister's Instructions N° 004/03 of 2015, which MININFRA lists among the housing instruments; the guide has not reviewed their current text. Developers building for sale or rent also need the real estate development authorisation under Article 30 of Law N° 10/2012 of 02/05/2012 governing urban planning and building in Rwanda, discussed with the incentives and the developer's financing in Mortgages, security and the real estate business and Investment incentives.