Introduction

An introduction to buying property in Argentina

Introduction

In order to buy real estate (UK: property) in Argentina you are required to have a CUIL (Clave Único de Identificación Laboral), CUIT (Clave Único de Identificación Tributarial) or CDI (Clave De Identificación) number.

These are all different types of individual tax number. A CDI can be obtained through your lawyer or you can do it yourself. More information on CUIL, CUIT and DNI can be found in the Visa section of our guide. In Argentina, you will most likely find the real estate through a realtor (UK: estate agent).

Once you find a place you like, your realtor will contact the owner’s realtor to initiate price negotiations. It is normal in Argentina that property is overpriced to give room for negotiation. When making an offer you are expected to make a security deposit which will be held by the realtor. This deposit is called Reserva de Compra. It is recommended not to leave a cash deposit in case the seller does not accept the offer. Normally a time period during which the owner can consider your offer is agreed upon.

If the seller accepts the offer made, the propery is withdrawn from the market and preparations for the boleto de compra-venta or the escritura are made. The boleto de compra-venta is the sales agreement. At this point the buyer generally makes a down payment of 30% of the total amount. If the buyer backs out, he/she loses the down payment. If the seller backs out, buyer gets back the 30% down payment and the seller is fined an equal amount payable to the buyer. The percentage of down payment is normally 30% but can be negotiated between the parties. The boleto is drawn up by a lawyer or public notary.

After the boleto the parties finalise the sale at the escribano or public notary where the ownership title will be given to the buyer. If the parties wish to make use of a boleto a date to sign at the escribano is normally set at least 30 days after the signing of the boleto. If you want to finish of the buying process as soon as possible you can also go directly to the escribano.

General practice is that all costs occurred before signing the final papers at the notary public are to be paid by the seller. All the costs after the final contract at the notary public, such as the costs of transferring names on the papers of ownership and the commission for the notary public are paid for by the buyer.

Further reading

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