Notaries are living a true golden age. With the number of sales of land, houses, apartments, villas and non-residential properties, among others, experiencing a sharp increase, notaries have more and more work. Added to this is the fact that real estate prices are currently soaring. As a result, notaries are seeing an explosion in their fees.
To give an indication, in 2022, 7,971 residential construction permits were issued by the authorities, compared to 5,853 in 2020, an increase of 26.5%. We are not talking here about transactions concerning the sale and purchase of residential and non-residential land which have also seen an increase.
Residential property prices have risen by more than 30% since 2020. This is notably driven by the opening of the real estate market to foreigners. During 2020/21, resales of luxury properties ranged between Rs 14 million (US$ 300,000) and Rs 257 million (US$ 5.5 million). Currently, the prices of a villa can, exceptionally of course, exceed Rs 350 million. On the other hand, in 2023, Mauritius recorded several land transactions exceeding one billion rupees.
Note that notaries do not only handle real estate transactions but also deal with inheritance matters, family advice and business advice.
