Investing in Zanzibar
Growing Demand, Protected Title, A Quieter Coast.
Zanzibar has received international visitors for decades, and the numbers keep climbing. What the island still lacks is beachfront property built to be owned, used and professionally run.
Airlift has grown with demand. Direct flights now connect Zanzibar with Europe, the Gulf, Asia, and East and Southern Africa, and its airport is among the fastest growing in Africa.
The government is pro-investment, and foreign buyers can hold titled property under a framework built to protect them. New developments are coming to market quickly. Very few are beachfront residences with hospitality built in from the outset.
Pongwe, on the east coast, is quieter and less developed than the rest of the island. International hotel brands are arriving, and until Seasons, no residences had been offered on this stretch.
- Demand
- Steady tourism growth, year on year
- Access
- Direct flights from Europe, the Gulf, Asia and Africa
- Ownership
- 99-year leasehold title for foreign buyers
- Protection
- ZIPA registration: transfer, repatriation, disputes
- Supply
- Few beachfront residences with hospitality built in
- Location
- Pongwe: quiet, low-density, east coast
The east coast
Low‑Density, Sunrise‑Facing, Reef‑Protected.
The east coast has grown differently from the north and the south-east. Density is lower, guests stay longer, and many come back to the same stretch of sand year after year.
The beach faces the sunrise behind a wide tidal reef, and two monsoons set the rhythm of the year.
Pongwe sits on the quietest part of it, and on present trajectories it is likely to remain one of the least developed stretches of the island.
- Kaskazi
- North-east monsoon, December to March: warm and still
- Kusi
- South-east monsoon, June to September: a steady breeze
- Outlook
- East over the reef, to the sunrise
- Density
- Low, with no residences on this stretch until Seasons
Title and incentives
Titled, Tax‑Efficient, Fully Repatriable.
Foreign buyers hold property in Zanzibar on leasehold, under a framework built to attract them and protect them.
Title
Titled, in your name.
A 99-year leasehold Unit Title under Zanzibar's condominium legislation, in a development registered with ZIPA.
- Tenure
- 99-year leasehold
- Rights
- Transferable, inheritable, mortgageable
Tax
Strategic Investment incentives.
Seasons is a ZIPA Strategic Investment, which brings buyers tax incentives at purchase and on resale.
- Stamp duty
- Halved on purchase
- Capital gains
- Half exempt on resale
Your money
Free to repatriate.
Rental income and the proceeds of a sale can be repatriated in full, in any freely convertible currency.
- Income
- Repatriated in full
- Sale
- Repatriated in full
The operator
Managed, Reported, Maintained.
What a residence earns while you are away depends on who runs it, in year one and in year ten.
At Seasons that is Seasons Management Company, set up for Seasons and in place for the long term, with no handover to a third-party operator. The team behind the lodge and Ubunifu both remain invested in it, so their return depends on how the residences perform.
Owners keep 28 nights a year. For the rest of the year the residence is let through the rental programme, with income distributed quarterly and reported through an owner portal.
- Operator
- Seasons Management Company
- Term
- Long term, with no third-party handover
- Your nights
- 28 a year, from an agreed calendar
- Income
- Distributed quarterly
- Reporting
- Income, occupancy and costs, in one portal
The investment
Smart Investment, Lifestyle Dividends.
You visit, you leave, you return. While you are away, the property performs.
When you visit, the residence is ready, and the lodge's beach club, spa and restaurant are yours to use, with nothing to arrange or maintain. When you leave, it returns to the rental programme and earns through the months you are not there. When you return, it has been kept to the standard you left it in, by the team that runs the lodge.
Over time, what you hold is a titled residence on a stretch of coast with no other residential supply, in a building specified for the twenty years after handover rather than the day of it. When the time comes to sell, it goes to market with a rental record and a maintenance history, the two things a second buyer looks for first.
Beachfront has rarely been within reach of the small and mid-sized investor. Seasons puts it there: a stake in Zanzibar's tourism growth, held as titled property, with studios from $118,000, an entry price beachfront elsewhere in the Indian Ocean no longer offers.
Pricing, floor plans and the Buyers Pack.
Register once and we will send the Buyers Pack, with floor plans and pricing for each residence type and the payment plan for the Founders release.
Choose "Discuss ownership" and we will arrange a conversation at a time that suits you, with current availability. Choose "Email updates" and we will keep you posted from the site as the build moves forward.
We sell directly, so you will hear from the Seasons team, not an agent.