Leases

A Crown Lease may be issued to a person or organisation to have exclusive right to occupy a specific area of Crown land.

Lease types and purposes may include:

• Term Lease – for a specified lease term or period of time, or, in the case of a life tenure lease the passing of the lessee.
• Perpetual Lease – granted in perpetuity
• Rangeland Lease
• Miscellaneous Lease
• Commercial and Community leases on Park and Crown land. See Lease Register for more information
• Pastoral leases managed under the Pastoral Land Management and Conservation Act 1989 See: Pastoral Unit SA

A Crown Lease will specify:

• lessee
• leased area - Crown land description
• purpose
• rent
• term - fixed or perpetual
• terms and conditions

Your responsibilities

Lessees must comply with the lease conditions and keep the land in a satisfactory state.

Lessees must comply with the lease conditions and keep the land in a satisfactory state. Please complete the appropriate form below for any proposed improvements to the leased area – note payment is not required for these applications.

• Application for consent to undertake works or development on Crown land (for any lease on Crown land)
• Application for consent to undertake works on leased land in a National Park

The department may cancel your lease if you:

• breach the conditions
• abandon the land
• cease paying rent
• obtained the lease by making false statements

Where a lessee does not comply, the department may terminate the lease or take compliance action.

Transferring a Crown lease

Depending on the type of Crown Lease, you may be able to transfer the lease.

• Perpetual Lease: you may need to apply to ‘freehold’ a Perpetual Lease to a fee simple title before it can be transferred or sold to another party.
• Miscellaneous Lease: you may apply to transfer your lease and the application will be assessed prior to approval.
• Life Tenure Leases: most are not transferable.

To find out if your Crown Lease is eligible for transfer or to apply for transfer contact us.

If all requirements are met and approval is granted, the documentation facilitating the transfer will be sent to you for lodgement to the Land Services SA.

Purchasing your Crown Lease land

You may be eligible to purchase the land specified in your Crown Lease by surrendering your lease. You will need to complete the application to Freehold a Crown Lease form.

To find out if you can mortgage your Crown Lease, contact us.