How can a household obtain housing in South Sudan?

A household may obtain housing through customary or community land allocation, private purchase or transfer, a statutory lease or freehold arrangement, rent, family hosting, employer-provided shelter, self-building or humanitarian assistance. The available option depends on the location, land authority, community process, household circumstances and whether the household is displaced or returning.

Which bodies handle land and housing documentation in South Sudan?

Depending on the location, responsibilities may involve the Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development, the Land Reform Unit, the South Sudan Land Commission, state land or planning authorities, county or Payam land bodies, the Survey Department, the Land Registry and the Judiciary. Chiefs, community leaders and Community Land Committees may also handle customary allocation and local documentation, but they do not replace formal tenure authorities.

What should a household check before accepting a plot or home in South Sudan?

The household should check the allocator's authority, competing claims, supporting documents, surveyed boundaries, recognition by relevant authorities and possible relocation or rezoning. It should also establish whether the home needs a building permit and keep lease agreements, customary certificates and ownership documents safely.

What housing risks affect displaced and returning households in South Sudan?

Displaced and returning households may face damaged or temporary shelters, overcrowding, flooding, disputed land claims, exclusion from community allocation, eviction, weak documentation and limited access to services. Housing, land and property counselling, documentation support and a check with the responsible community and authority can reduce some of these risks.

Housing in South Sudan

Housing in South Sudan includes customary and statutory land arrangements, rented or privately transferred homes, family-hosted shelter, employer-provided housing, and humanitarian or self-built shelter. A tukul is a traditional round dwelling, while a rakooba is a simpler temporary shelter, and both remain common in rural areas. Access to housing is strongly shaped by displacement, return, flooding, conflict, local land allocation and rapid urbanisation.

Tip

Choose the housing arrangement that matches your urgency, available protection and ability to verify the land claim. Treat customary allocation, private transfer, rental, hosted shelter and humanitarian placement as different risk profiles, and do not commit money or construction work until the claim, boundaries, documents and possible relocation risks have been checked.

byNyandeng&Deng

Housing arrangements in South Sudan range from communal or customary land use to private ownership, leasehold, rental, family hosting and employer-provided shelter. Many households build or repair their own homes. Humanitarian assistance can provide emergency or transitional shelter, while some displaced and returning households move from transit centres to government-allocated integration sites. There is no evidenced nationwide housing-benefit or municipal social-housing system that applies uniformly across the country. Rural housing is dominated by tukul and rakooba structures. The 2023 Integrated Shelter and Needs Assessment recorded about 68.8% of rural shelters as tukul and 24.1% as rakooba. Around 1% of households had no shelter or slept outdoors. Among assessed damaged shelters, 43.6% had no or little damage, 41.9% had partial damage and 13.2% had complete damage. Urban informal settlements and self-built homes are widespread, while current national data on formal housing, rental markets and ownership are incomplete. Land access may follow customary or community allocation, private purchase or transfer, a statutory lease or freehold arrangement, rent, family hosting, employer provision or humanitarian relocation. In the 2023 rural assessment, 47.3% of recorded land arrangements were communal or customary, 30.3% private, 18.2% public and 3% tenancy, lease or rent. These figures describe the assessed rural sample and are not a national urban ownership survey. The Land Act 2009 recognises customary, freehold and leasehold rights. Customary rights, including communal rights, have equal legal force and effect to statutory rights. A person or household should therefore not treat a community allocation as automatically worthless, but customary documentation and government registration may provide different levels of proof and security. Expropriation or confiscation should have a legal basis, serve a public interest and involve prompt and fair compensation, with consultation requirements applying to affected communities. Formal land procedures may involve the Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development and its Land Reform Unit, the South Sudan Land Commission, a state land or planning authority, a county land authority, a Payam Land Council, the Survey Department, the Land Registry or the Judiciary, depending on the location and available institutions. A formal process may include community consultation, social assessment, surveying or demarcation, allocation or lease and registration. In peri-urban areas, customary land may be converted into an individual urban leasehold. Capacity, enforcement and the availability of records vary considerably between places. Community processes often involve chiefs, community leaders or Community Land Committees. They may include local surveying, boundary marking, allocation and customary certificates or other local documents. These arrangements can provide practical access where formal institutions are limited, but oversight, transparency and tenure security may be weaker. Disputes can involve competing customary, public and private claims, unregistered urban or peri-urban plots, exclusion of displaced or returning households, ethnic tensions, inheritance claims or unclear boundaries. Anyone receiving or renting housing should check who allocated the land, whether other people claim it, which document supports the arrangement, whether boundaries were surveyed, whether the responsible authority recognises the transaction and whether future relocation or rezoning is possible. A lease agreement, customary land certificate or land ownership document can help establish the arrangement, but a document should be checked against the relevant community and authority records where those records exist. A home may also require a building plan and permit. Historical evidence from Juba describes a process involving an accredited engineer, a planning or state infrastructure unit, a plot and registry check, payment of a state fee and a permit certificate. This older Juba evidence should not be treated as a verified current nationwide procedure. Housing needs are especially high among internally displaced people, returnees and people affected by the conflict in Sudan. The February 2025 Displacement Tracking Matrix recorded 1,992,513 internally displaced people and 2,963,408 returnees. Movement tracking in 2025 recorded 753,084 internally displaced people and 69,923 returnees across 10 states and Abyei. Conflict, flooding, localised violence and the Sudan conflict were recorded as major movement drivers. In Renk, 1,074 returnees from 205 households moved from a transit centre to the Abukadra integration site in 2025 after the government allocated land, with shelter and basic services supported by authorities and humanitarian partners. Housing support can include emergency shelter, transitional shelter, repairs, reconstruction, land allocation, documentation and housing, land and property counselling. In 2025, UNHCR reported services for 34,508 people, including 9,199 emergency shelters, 82 transitional shelters and support for 18,000 returnees obtaining land ownership documents. It also reported 1,732 cases of housing, land and property legal counselling, 319 cases receiving legal representation or related court support and training for 519 Community Land Committees. Humanitarian organisations support coordination and services but do not replace the authority responsible for land tenure. Women have statutory land rights, but customary practices may condition access on marriage or childbearing. Widows, daughters and divorced women can face dispossession, and joint registration or inheritance protection may be weak in practice. Keeping land and housing documents safely, recording the interests of all household members and obtaining specialised counselling can reduce these risks. Current national figures for rent, sale prices, construction costs, deposits and permit fees are not sufficiently reliable for a general 2026 estimate. Historical Juba research recorded formalisation costs of approximately US$32 to US$188 by plot class, application fees of US$23 to US$63, registry fees of US$8 to US$13, a survey fee of about US$32 and intermediary charges of up to US$250 or more, alongside reports of informal fees. These figures are historical indicators rather than current national prices. Flood exposure, overcrowding, damaged shelters, eviction, rezoning, weak registration, land disputes and funding shortages should be assessed alongside the physical condition and cost of a home.