Most people who lose money on Gambian property are not careless. They are careful people who did not know which specific things to be careful about.
That distinction matters. The advice you usually get — “be careful”, “use someone you trust”, “get it in writing” — is useless because it does not tell you what to look for. This piece does.
Everything below is drawn from purchases we have worked on and from what happened to people we know. Some of it happened to us.
1. The plot that was sold twice
How it works
Someone sells a piece of land. The sale is genuine, the money changes hands, and the buyer receives paperwork. Years pass. The buyer is in London and the plot sits empty because they intend to build on it eventually.
In the meantime the seller — or a family member, or someone who claims to represent the family — sells the same plot again. The second buyer also receives paperwork. Both sets look legitimate because both sales were, in a narrow sense, real.
Nobody finds out until one of them starts building.
Why it happens
Land in The Gambia has historically changed hands through customary and family arrangements that were never formally registered. When a plot has no clear registered owner, there is no single record to check against, and there is nothing stopping the same land being sold more than once.
Empty land is the highest risk of all, because nobody is present to notice.
How to avoid it
- Have someone conduct a title search at the Lands Registry before any money moves
- Trace ownership back through the chain, not just the most recent transfer
- Ask specifically whether the land is registered, and if the answer is vague, treat that as the answer
- Physically visit the plot and confirm the boundaries against the site plan
- If the land is unregistered, understand that you are buying a claim, not a title
2. The relative who was handling it
How it works
You send money to a family member to buy on your behalf. It is the most natural thing in the world — they are there, you are not, and you trust them.
There is no contract. No receipts. Nothing that names you as the owner. Sometimes the property is registered in their name, because that was simpler at the time and nobody wanted to make it awkward by asking.
Then something changes. They fall out with you. They pass away and the property forms part of their estate. Their spouse or children have a legitimate claim to something you paid for. Or the money simply did not go where you thought.
Why it happens
Not usually because of dishonesty. It happens because family arrangements are not documented, and undocumented arrangements collapse the moment circumstances change or memories differ.
The emotional weight is the mechanism. Nobody wants to be the relative who asked for a receipt.
How to avoid it
- Have a written agreement even when it feels unnecessary, especially when it feels unnecessary
- Ensure the property is registered in your name, not theirs
- Keep records of every transfer, including the ones sent through informal channels
- If someone acts on your behalf, give them a formal power of attorney rather than an understanding
- Treat this exactly as you would a UK purchase — you would not send £60,000 to a cousin in Manchester without paperwork
3. The development that never finished
How it works
You buy off-plan. The renders are impressive, the location is good, and the price is meaningfully below completed properties nearby. You pay a deposit, then staged payments.
Updates arrive regularly at first. Then they slow. Then they arrive only when you chase. Then the developer stops responding, or responds with reasons that are hard to verify from three thousand miles away.
Sometimes the build genuinely stalled because of financing or material supply. Sometimes it was never going to be finished. From your position, both look identical.
Why it happens
Off-plan development anywhere carries this risk. In The Gambia it is amplified because developers are often smaller and less capitalised, rainy season halts work for months, and there is no equivalent of a UK warranty scheme standing behind the build.
How to avoid it
- Check what the developer has actually completed before, and go and look at it
- Never pay in full upfront — stage payments against verified construction milestones
- Have someone photograph the site monthly, dated, whether or not you ask for it
- Build the rainy season into your expected timeline from the start
- Be sceptical of any price significantly below the market, because that gap is usually the risk
4. The title that was never transferred
How it works
The sale completes. You pay in full. You receive a signed agreement and you consider yourself the owner.
But the transfer at the Lands Registry never happened. Perhaps the paperwork was submitted and stalled. Perhaps it was never submitted. Perhaps the seller had reasons for leaving it.
On paper, the property still belongs to someone else. You will usually discover this when you try to sell it, or when you die and your family tries to inherit it.
Why it happens
Registration takes time and involves fees, and the incentive to complete it belongs to the buyer, not the seller. Once the seller has been paid, they have no reason to chase anything. If nobody is following it through, it simply stops.
How to avoid it
- Understand that a signed sale agreement is not the same as a registered title
- Make final payment conditional on the transfer being lodged
- Track the registration through to completion and obtain confirmation
- Get a copy of the updated title record showing your name, not a promise it is coming
5. The agent who represented nobody
How it works
Someone shows you properties, arranges viewings, and speaks with authority about the area. They are helpful and knowledgeable. You assume they represent the seller or a firm.
They represent nobody. They have no formal relationship with the owner, no professional accountability, and no obligation to you. When something goes wrong, there is no organisation behind them to escalate to. Frequently there is no longer a person either.
Why it happens
Estate agency in The Gambia is not regulated the way it is in the UK. There is no register to check, no body to complain to, and nothing stopping anybody from describing themselves as an agent.
How to avoid it
- Ask directly what their relationship to the seller is, and ask for it in writing
- Ask what happens if the sale falls through and who is accountable
- Verify the seller’s identity and ownership independently of whoever introduced you
- Do not let the person introducing you to the property also be the only person verifying it
The pattern underneath all five
Every one of these depends on the same thing: distance.
Not distance in miles. Distance in verification. Every scam above works because the buyer could not easily check something, and had to rely on somebody else’s word for it instead.
Which means the protection is never really “be careful”. It is having someone independently confirm what you have been told — before the money moves, not after.
The checks that prevent most of it
If you take one thing from this piece, take this list. These five things, done before payment, prevent the overwhelming majority of what goes wrong.
- Title search at the Lands Registry, tracing ownership back through the chain
- Physical site visit, photographed and dated, with boundaries checked against the plan
- Written contract reviewed before signing, with payment staged against milestones
- Independent verification of whoever is selling — separate from whoever introduced you
- Registration tracked to completion, with confirmation that the title now shows your name
None of it is complicated. All of it is difficult to do from another country, which is precisely why so many people skip it.
A word on why this reads the way it does
We could have written a shorter piece saying The Gambia is a great place to invest and you should get in touch. Plenty of sites do.
But if you are considering sending a significant amount of money to a country you cannot easily get to, you deserve to know exactly how people lose it. Being able to spot these five patterns is worth more to you than any listing.
If you have found a property and something about it does not sit right, that instinct is usually worth acting on. Send it to us and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth checking properly — before you spend anything at all.