Emphyteusis (Greek, 'implanting') or emphyteutic lease is a contract for land that allows the holder the right to the enjoyment of a property, often in perpetuity, on condition of proper care, payment of tax and rent.
This type of real estate contract specifying that the lessee must improve the property for the nation or for its population e.g. through construction or a railway service or by farming the land to create produce, as happened in Mauritius where people were starving.
The emphyteusis gave the lease-holder (emphyteuta) rights similar to those of a proprietor, although the real owner remained the person to whom the rent (canon or pensio) was paid.
[2] Under certain circumstances, the land returned to the owner, as in the case of the death of the emphyteuta intestate, non-payment of the rent or taxes for three years (or two years in case of land held of the Church), lapse of time if a term was fixed in the original agreement, contractus emphyteuseos, which was a specific contract and neither an ordinary lease nor a sale.
[3] Emphyteusis is still in use in countries such as Sri Lanka,[4] Germany, Belgium, Canada,[5] Portugal,[6] France,[7] Italy,[8] the Netherlands,[9] Malta and Catalonia[10] and, until relatively recently, in Scotland.