On November 15, the President of Uzbekistan signed the Privatization of Non-Agricultural Land Plots Bill into Law. The Law was published by Хalq So’zi newspaper with immediate effect. 

The privatization of a land plot means the alienation of a state-owned non-agricultural land plot into the ownership of citizens or legal entities.

The objects of privatization, according to the Law, are:

• land plots provided to legal entities for business and building activities;
• land plots provided to citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan for housing construction and maintenance of a residential building, as well as business and building activities;
• land plots on which state real estate objects subject to privatization are located (previously this was not allowed, the Ministry of Justice highlighted);
• free land plots.

Now as per the new Law, the land plots:

• on which mineral deposits are located, objects of state ownership that are not subject to privatization in accordance with the law;
• included in the lands of nature conservation, health-improving, recreational, historical and cultural purposes, as well as lands of forest and water resources, protective zones of engineering and transport infrastructure facilities, common use of cities and towns (squares, streets, driveways, roads, embankments, squares, boulevards , parks);
• contaminated with hazardous substances and susceptible to biogenic contamination;
• provided in the manner prescribed by law to participants in special economic zones - for the period of functioning of the special economic zone;
• on which apartment buildings are located, as well as land plots adjacent to apartment buildings;
• provided for the implementation of public-private partnership projects, agreements and contracts on social partnership, as well as legal entities for state and public needs

are not allowed for privatization

The Law underscored that the subjects of privatization are citizens and legal entities of Uzbekistan. Foreign citizens, stateless persons, foreign legal entities, enterprises with foreign investments, as well as state bodies, institutions and enterprises cannot be subjects of privatization.

Privatization of land plots can be carried out in two forms - through the redemption by the subjects of privatization of land plots that they have on the right of permanent use, lease or life-long inheritance, and through the purchase of land plots through an electronic online auction.

Proceeds from privatization will go directly to the state budget. Previously, in accordance with the previous version of the privatization law, they were sent to the Urbanization Development Fund.

An application for privatization is submitted through the centers of public services or the Single portal of interactive public services (EPIGU, my.gov.uz).

Based on the results of the consideration, a notification is sent with a positive or negative decision. The latter must be justified.

The grounds for refusing to privatize are:

• lack of grounds for privatization;
• the presence of unfinished legal proceedings in relation to the privatized land plots;
• the existence of a ban or arrest imposed on real estate objects located on the privatized land plots;
• the presence in the approved master plans of settlements, projects of detailed layouts of parts of a settlement, other documents on the integrated development and development of territories or types of permitted use of a land plot of information that directly impedes the privatization of land plots;
• the presence of decisions of the Kengashes of people's deputies of the regions or decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers on the seizure of land plots for state and public needs, adopted before the application was submitted;
• the presence of a ban on the sale or other alienation of the privatized land plot;
• discovery in the application of inaccurate, contradictory or distorted information;
• non-performance or incomplete payment of the redemption value of the privatized land plot.

Refusal to privatize land plots on other grounds is not allowed.

Nationalization (transfer of privatized land for a certain payment to the state) is excluded from the Law.

The previous version of the privatization law was signed by the president in 2019 and has been in effect since March 2020.