Apartments and offices are open to foreign buyers with no permit. Rural land is back in court. Here is the process from the reservation to the registry, how the dollars are paid, what a US$200,000 apartment really costs — and what changed in 2026 for sellers and landlords.
A foreigner who does not live in Argentina can buy an apartment, a house, an office or a shop in Buenos Aires or any other city on the same terms as an Argentine. There is no investment minimum, no permit and no residence requirement. What the buyer needs is a tax number (a CUIT), money that can be traced, and a notary — the escribano — who signs the transfer deed.
Three things changed in 2024–2026 and make Argentina cheaper to buy into than it was: the 1.5% transfer tax on sellers was abolished in July 2024, since 1 January 2026 individuals pay no income tax on the gain when they sell, and since the end of 2023 landlords and tenants can freely agree rent in dollars. Rural land is the exception: its foreign-ownership limits were repealed by decree in December 2023 and, as of November 2026, are provisionally back in force by order of the Supreme Court.
| Type of property | Can a non-resident foreigner buy? | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment, house or office in a city | Yes, on the same terms as an Argentine | Title, debts, building rules |
| Shop, warehouse, commercial premises | Yes | Zoning and permitted use, existing leases |
| Rural land | Yes, but the Rural Lands Law limits are provisionally back (October 2026) | Certificate from the Registro Nacional de Tierras Rurales before signing |
| Land in a border security zone | Only with prior consent from the national government | Whether the plot lies inside the zone, even if urban |
Rural land. Law 26,737 of 2011, the Ley de Tierras Rurales, caps foreign ownership of rural land. Article 154 of the President’s emergency decree — the DNU (decreto de necesidad y urgencia) — 70/2023 repealed it in December 2023. The courts have been arguing about it ever since. On 29 September 2026 the Supreme Court overturned an appeal ruling that had declared the repeal unconstitutional, holding that the veterans’ association that sued had no standing. Days later, on 9 October, it provisionally suspended article 154 in a separate collective claim brought in Bariloche, which returns the 2011 limits while the federal court there decides the case. On 21 October the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill that would restore the law by statute; it goes back to the Senate.
| Limit under Law 26,737 | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total foreign ownership | 15% of rural land nationally, and in each province and department |
| One nationality | No more than 30% of that 15% |
| Per foreign owner | 1,000 hectares in the core farming zone, or the equivalent elsewhere |
| Water and borders | No foreign ownership of land containing or bordering large permanent bodies of water, or in border security zones |
In practice: a foreigner can still buy rural land, within the limits, but the escribano will ask for a certificate from the Registro Nacional de Tierras Rurales before the deed. Check the position on the day you sign — this is moving month by month.
Border security zones. A separate regime from 1944 requires foreigners to get the prior consent of the national government, through the Ministry of the Interior’s border affairs office, before acquiring property in the security zones along the borders. It applies even to some urban plots near a border, so check the location before paying a deposit.
Law and practice: Law 26,737 (2011), arts. 8–10; DNU 70/2023, art. 154; Supreme Court, CECIM case (29 September 2026) and Árbol de Pie collective amparo (interim order of 9 October 2026); Ley de Inviolabilidad de la Propiedad Privada, approved by the Chamber of Deputies in October 2026, arts. 38–39; Decree-Law 15,385/1944 (security zones).
CUIT, not CDI
Since 2 March 2026 ARCA, the federal tax agency (formerly AFIP), issues foreigners an ordinary CUIT instead of the old CDI. Without an Argentine ID you get a provisional CUIT valid for two years. Existing CDIs were converted automatically.
Passport
Your identity document for the deed. An Argentine ID (DNI) is not required to buy.
Power of attorney
If you will not be in Argentina to sign, a power of attorney for property acts, signed before a notary abroad, apostilled and translated into Spanish by a sworn translator.
Source of funds
Escribanos are reporting entities for the financial intelligence unit (UIF). Expect to show where the money comes from: bank statements, a sale contract, a tax return.
Buying through a company
Possible, but a foreign company must first register in Argentina, and the wealth tax rate doubles. For one apartment, most foreigners buy in their own name.
The tax number is the same one we describe in our guide to opening an Argentine company: it is requested through a representative domiciled in Argentina, and the escribano will not sign without it.
Law and practice: ARCA RG 5803/2025 (CUIT for foreigners from 2 March 2026); Law 25,246 (UIF reporting entities).
A typical purchase in Buenos Aires follows the steps below. Many sales of used apartments skip the boleto and go straight from the reservation to the deed in 30 to 60 days; sales off-plan or with a long completion period use one.
A written offer with a small deposit, held by the agent, usually for a few days until the seller accepts. If the seller refuses, it is returned.
The buyer’s escribano checks the chain of title, mortgages, liens and the seller’s capacity, and requests certificates from the property registry and debt reports for ABL, water and building charges.
The private sale agreement, with the price, the date of the deed and possession. Common for off-plan or longer deals.
Paid with the boleto. By default it confirms the sale; if the parties agree a right to withdraw, the buyer loses it and the seller returns double.
Signed before the escribano, with the balance paid at the same moment and the keys usually handed over.
The escribano files the deed with the Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble. Registration makes your title good against third parties.
The buyer chooses the escribano in Buenos Aires practice, and the escribano is the person who protects you: insist that the title study is done before money changes hands. Agents (the inmobiliaria) in Buenos Aires must be licensed brokers; ask for the licence number.
Law and practice: Civil and Commercial Code, art. 1059 (seña confirmatoria unless a right to withdraw is agreed), art. 1017 (real estate transfers require a public deed); CABA Law 2340 (licensed brokers).
Argentine property is priced and paid in US dollars. The traditional method is still the most common: on the day of the deed, buyer and seller meet in a bank branch, the banknotes are counted and checked in a private room, the deed is signed and the seller deposits the cash. The bank charges for the room and the count.
Transfers between dollar accounts at Argentine banks are increasingly used and leave a cleaner trail. A non-resident can bring the money from abroad into an Argentine dollar account, or the parties can agree payment to the seller’s account abroad; in both cases the escribano records how the price was paid. Keep the money in dollars end to end. Since April 2025 residents buy and sell dollars freely, but the Central Bank’s official foreign-exchange market, the MULC, remains more restrictive for non-residents, and converting pesos back into dollars is where a foreign buyer can get stuck. For the corporate side of the controls, see our guide to getting money out of Argentina.
Do not use the informal “cuevas”, the street exchange houses. They are illegal, they leave no record of where your money came from, and an unexplained cash trail is exactly what the escribano and the bank have to report.
Law and practice: BCRA Communication A 8226 (April 2025, individuals) and A 8230 (non-residents’ investments). Escribanos and banks report under Law 25,246.
The table shows the buyer’s costs on a used US$200,000 apartment in the city, at around ARS 1,500 to the dollar. At that rate the price exceeds the ARS 226.1 million threshold, so stamp duty is 3.5% of the whole price rather than the reduced 2.7%.
| Buyer’s cost, US$200,000 apartment in Buenos Aires City | Rate | Amount (US$) |
|---|---|---|
| Impuesto de Sellos (stamp duty), price above ARS 226.1 million | 3.5%, usually shared equally with the seller | 3,500 (half of 7,000) |
| Escribano (notary) fee | 1–2% plus 21% VAT | 2,420–4,840 |
| Certificates, reports and registration | about 0.2–0.4% | 400–800 |
| Agent’s commission, buyer side (if an agent is used) | up to 4% by market practice, negotiable | 0–8,000 |
| Real estate transfer tax (ITI) | Repealed in July 2024 | 0 |
| Total on top of the price | about 3–8.5% | about 6,300–17,100 |
Three notes. First, the city’s exemption for a buyer’s only family home, occupied permanently, removes stamp duty up to ARS 226.1 million; a non-resident buying a second home or an investment does not qualify. Second, the agent’s commission is set by agreement in a sale: many agents ask up to 4% from the buyer and 3–4% from the seller, and a buyer who finds the property directly pays nothing. Third, in the province of Buenos Aires — Pilar, Tigre, Nordelta, the coast — stamp duty is set by the provincial tax agency ARBA, on the higher of the price and the fiscal valuation, and the province also asks for a surveyor’s plot certificate.
Law and practice: CABA Ley Tarifaria 2026, art. 34 (2.7% up to ARS 226,100,000; 3.5% above) and Código Fiscal (exemption for the only family home); Province of Buenos Aires Ley Impositiva 2026 (Law 15,558); Law 27,743, Title IV (ITI repealed from 8 July 2024). Notary and agent ranges are market practice.
| Tax | Who pays and how | Rate or result |
|---|---|---|
| Wealth tax (Bienes Personales) | An Argentine substitute taxpayer pays for the non-resident owner, as a final payment | Flat 0.5% of the property’s tax value, no tax-free allowance |
| Wealth tax, property held by a foreign company | Presumed to belong to Argentine individuals; the substitute pays | Rate doubled |
| Municipal property tax (ABL in Buenos Aires City) | Owner, by bill | Based on the fiscal valuation |
| Income tax on a sale by an individual from 1 January 2026 | — | Exempt, residents and non-residents alike |
| Income tax on long-term rent to a tenant’s permanent home (individuals) | — | Exempt from 1 January 2026 |
| Income tax on other rent paid to a non-resident | Withheld by the payer, final | 21% of the gross rent |
A non-resident who owns Argentine property pays wealth tax, Bienes Personales, through a responsable sustituto: an Argentine resident — often a relative, an accountant or the building’s administrator — who files and pays on the owner’s behalf at a flat 0.5%, with no tax-free allowance. On a US$200,000 apartment valued at cost, that is about US$1,000 a year.
If the property is held by a foreign company, Argentina presumes that it belongs to Argentine individuals and doubles the rate — one more reason to buy in your own name unless there is a specific structuring need.
Law and practice: Law 23,966, Title VI, art. 26 (substitute taxpayer and foreign-entity presumption).
Until July 2024 a seller who had bought before 2018 paid the 1.5% real estate transfer tax (ITI) on the price; the 2024 fiscal package abolished it. Gains on property bought from 2018 were taxed at 15% under the schedular income tax, for non-residents through withholding at the deed.
From 1 January 2026 that is gone too. The labour modernisation law, Law 27,802, rewrote the exemptions of the income tax law, and Decree 406/2026 confirmed that gains from selling Argentine property, or assigning a boleto, are exempt for individuals and estates, “resident in Argentina or abroad”, when the sale happens on or after 1 January 2026. A company that sells property still pays corporate income tax on the gain.
Law and practice: Law 27,743 (Boletín Oficial 8 July 2024), Title IV; Law 27,802, Title XXIV, ch. II, art. 192 (income tax law, art. 26(n)); Decree 406/2026 (Boletín Oficial 1 June 2026), art. 2.
Term
Agreed freely. If the contract says nothing, a home lease runs for two years and other uses for three.
Currency
Rent can be set in pesos or in dollars, and the tenant must pay in the currency agreed; judges cannot change it.
Indexation
Any index the parties choose, at any frequency; payment at least monthly.
Deposit
Amount and currency agreed by the parties.
Early exit
The tenant can end the lease at any time by paying 10% of the rent remaining to the end of the term.
Older leases
Leases signed before the decree stay under the repealed rental law, Law 27,551, until they end.
Tax on rent. From 1 January 2026, rent that an individual receives from a home let to a tenant who lives in it as their permanent family home is exempt from income tax. The decree does not distinguish residents from non-residents. Commercial premises, offices and short-term tourist lets are outside that exemption: rent paid to a non-resident is taxed by a final withholding of 21% of the gross rent, applied by the payer. In practice a non-resident landlord with a commercial tenant works through a local agent or representative who handles the withholding, the VAT position and the lease.
Law and practice: DNU 70/2023 (repeal of Law 27,551; Civil and Commercial Code arts. 765, 766, 1198 and others as amended); Decree 406/2026, art. 1; Income Tax Law, art. 104 (60% presumed net income on rent, taxed at 35%).
Many of our clients look at both. Paraguay is the simpler market legally and fiscally; Argentina is the bigger and more liquid one, especially in Buenos Aires, and its prices fell far in the crisis years.
| Argentina | Paraguay | |
|---|---|---|
| Urban property for foreigners | Open | Open |
| Rural land | Law 26,737 limits provisionally back; Congress debating | Open, except a 50 km border strip for nationals of neighbouring countries |
| Currency of the deal | US dollars, cash or bank | Usually US dollars, through the banking system |
| Stamp duty on purchase | Yes: 3.5% in Buenos Aires City above the threshold | None |
| Annual wealth tax | 0.5% for non-residents | None |
| Residence through owning property | No | No by itself; the residence route is separate |
Two things buyers often get wrong. Owning property gives no residence in either country by itself; in Paraguay residence is a separate process, covered in our guide to Paraguayan residence. And an Argentine resident buying in Paraguay remains taxable in Argentina on the rent and on the asset; if you are moving, read our guide to moving from Argentina to Paraguay first.
Law and practice: Paraguay Law 2532/2005, arts. 1–2 (50 km border security zone; nationals of neighbouring countries need an executive decree to own rural land there).
Boletín Oficial: Decree 406/2026 · Colegio de Escribanos CABA: Código Fiscal and Ley Tarifaria 2026 · Colegio de Escribanos CABA: 2.7% and 3.5% stamp duty rates · Colegio de Escribanos: PBA Ley Impositiva 2026 · CABA Law 2340 (brokers) · Deloitte: Law 27,743 (ITI repeal, wealth tax) · Chambers Private Wealth 2026: Argentina · iProfesional: Supreme Court suspends the Rural Lands repeal · Palabras del Derecho: Deputies’ bill restoring Law 26,737 · Chequeado: rentals after DNU 70/2023 · Ministry of the Interior: Decree-Law 15,385/1944 · BACN Paraguay: Law 2532/2005
Yes. Urban property — apartments, houses, offices, shops — can be bought by non-resident foreigners on the same terms as Argentines. You need a CUIT tax number and an escribano; residence is not required.
Yes, within limits. The Rural Lands Law 26,737 was repealed by DNU 70/2023, but on 9 October 2026 the Supreme Court provisionally suspended the repeal, so the 15% cap and the 1,000-hectare limit in the core zone apply again while the case continues. A bill to restore the law is before the Senate.
No. Since 2 March 2026 ARCA issues foreigners an ordinary CUIT instead of the CDI, including a provisional CUIT for those without an Argentine ID.
On a US$200,000 apartment in the city, expect about 3% to 8.5% on top of the price: half of the 3.5% stamp duty, the escribano’s fee plus VAT, certificates and registration, and any agent’s commission.
Not for individuals selling from 1 January 2026: the gain is exempt from income tax for residents and non-residents, and the 1.5% transfer tax (ITI) was abolished in July 2024. Companies still pay corporate tax on the gain.
Yes. A local substitute taxpayer pays a flat 0.5% a year on the property’s tax value, with no allowance. The rate doubles if a foreign company owns the property.
Yes. Since DNU 70/2023 the parties can agree rent in dollars, any indexation and the term; without an agreed term a home lease runs for two years.
No. Owning property does not by itself give a residence permit, in Argentina or in Paraguay.
Article 123, the new CUIT for foreigners and the bank.
Temporary, permanent and citizenship, step by step.
Tell us what you want to buy, where, and in whose name. We arrange the CUIT, the power of attorney and the escribano’s file, and set up the tax side — fixed quote within one business day.
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