In Myanmar, land is categorised as either

1) Agricultural land or

2) Non-agricultural land .

Agricultural land refers to cultivable waste land at the disposal of the State and land which is occupied for the purpose of agriculture such as paddy (rice land ) , ya (dry land) , kaing (alluvial land) and garden .

Non-agricultural land refers to land that is not used for agricultural purposes. For example , forest land , grazing ground, road, town and village lands, etc. If agricultural land is not used for cultivation, all the buildings on agricultural land can be removed by authorities. Furthermore, whoever uses agricultural land for purposes other than the intended use, can be vacated and penalised under the 1963 Land Tenancy Law.

In order to change the land title from “agricultural land”into “non-agricultural land” it is necessary to get the land use permission, in accordance with the 1953 land Nationalisation Act, Article No 39. According to this Article the President or the authorities appointed by President’s office to act on President’s behalf, may direct , if deemed necessary, that any agricultural land be utilised in such manners as prescribed by the President.

Types and Classes of Myanmar Land

1. From an administrative point of view, land can be classified into the following eleven categories.

· Freehold Land^[1]

· Grant Land^[2]

· Agricultural Land

· Garden Land

· Grazing Land

· Cultivable Land, Fallow Land and Waste Land

· Forest Land

· Town Land

· Village Land^[3]

· Cantonments

· Monastery

2. In the legal concept“Agricultural Land” and “Garden Land” belong to a single category but for the sake of clarification they are discussed separately. The same applies to “TownLand” and “Village Land” which , on certain aspects, could either be categorised under “Freehold Land” or “Grant Land”.

• Myanmar Property Knowledge