How to Buy Property in Brazil

Who can buy and where the limits are

A foreigner can buy an apartment or house in a Brazilian city without living in Brazil. A direct purchase gets the same treatment as a purchase by a resident, and ordinary urban property needs no visa and no government approval. You do need a CPF, the individual tax number, because the registry records it for each owner and the notary reports it to the tax authority.

Three limits catch foreign buyers:

• Rural land. Law 5.709/1971 lets foreigners resident in Brazil and foreign companies authorized to operate here buy rural land within set limits. The deed must show proof of residence in Brazil (art. 9), and art. 15 voids any purchase outside those rules. The law covers the whole country, so distance from a border doesn't help. Read the rural land guide before you look at farmland or a large plot outside town.
• The border strip. A 1979 law, 6.634, covers a band 150 km wide along Brazil's land borders. A foreigner needs prior federal consent to take ownership, possession or any real right over rural property there (art. 2, V).
• Federal coastal land. A 1946 decree-law, 9.760, bars in its art. 205 the transfer of federal land in the coastal zone to a foreigner without presidential authorization. Two exceptions matter to buyers: a unit in an urban condominium building, within a limit on ideal fractions, and, for individuals, a plot no larger than 1,000 square meters in the 100-meter coastal strip. The terreno de marinha guide explains the land itself.

Buying gives you no right to live in Brazil. Residence has its own rules, set out in the investor visa guide and the guide to residency options for owners. Buying doesn't make you a tax resident either. That turns on your visa and your days in Brazil.

When you become the owner

Brazil separates the sale contract from the transfer of ownership. Real rights over land are acquired only by registration (Civil Code art. 1.227), and between living people ownership moves when the deed is registered (art. 1.245). Everything before that gives you a claim against the seller, and a claim is weaker than ownership.

The gap between deed and registration is where buyers lose money. If a creditor files a seizure, or the seller sells twice, whoever reached the registry first has the stronger position. Plan to file the deed the day you sign it or the next working day.

A deed that sits in a drawer leaves the seller as the owner on record. A property sold that way is usually what a possession listing turns out to be years later.

Who does what in a purchase

Unless the contract says otherwise, the buyer pays for the deed and registration (Civil Code art. 490). On resale homes the seller has traditionally paid the broker, though that is custom and the contract can say otherwise.

The notary holds a public delegation and answers for fault or intent, with a three-year limit on claims (Law 8.935/1994, art. 22). The notary still won't weigh your risk for you. The documents the law asks a notary to record are a short list, so a deed can be perfectly valid while the seller owes more than the property is worth. That's why you need a lawyer on your side, and why that lawyer shouldn't be the seller's.

You can buy with a broker from the directory or straight from an owner listed on the for-sale pages. The guide on buying directly from an owner shows who does the broker's job instead.

The offer, the promise of sale and the sinal

Offers are normally written. Once the price is agreed, the parties sign a promise of sale, a preliminary contract that must hold all the essential terms of the final one (Civil Code art. 462). If it has no clause allowing either side to withdraw, either side can demand the final deed (art. 463).

The deposit is called the sinal or arras. The law sets no percentage. It sets the consequences, and Law 14.905/2024 rewrote them. Take a sinal of R$ 100,000 on a contract worth R$ 1,000,000:

• You back out. The seller may end the contract and keep the R$ 100,000 (art. 418, I).
• The seller backs out. You may end the contract and demand your R$ 100,000 plus an equal R$ 100,000, with inflation adjustment, interest and lawyer's fees (art. 418, II).
• The loss is bigger than the sinal. The innocent side may claim the extra if it proves it, or may insist on the sale going ahead (art. 419).
• The contract allows withdrawal. The sinal is then the whole price of walking away, with no further damages (art. 420).

So the withdrawal clause changes your position. With it, a seller who gets a better offer can leave for R$ 200,000 in total paid back to you. Without it, you can ask a court, or the registry, to transfer the property.

Registering the promise gives you a real right to acquire the property, good against third parties (arts. 1.417 and 1.418). You can claim the transfer without that registration (STJ Súmula 239), and a 2022 law, 14.382, lets the claim run at the property registry without a lawsuit (Law 6.015, art. 216-B). An unregistered promise leaves you exposed to a good-faith buyer who relied on the record.

Write these into the contract: the price in words and figures, the dates, who pays each cost, a condition that the title check comes back clean, a deadline for the deed, and what happens to the sinal if the check fails.

The title check in the purchase

The check runs before money moves. It has a timing trap: registry certificates used for a deed are valid for 30 days (Decree 93.240/1986, art. 1, IV), so a set pulled too early has to be pulled again before signing. Read the matrícula first, because it costs little and arrives within hours. Pull the rest once the price is agreed.

Since Law 13.097/2015, a good-faith buyer is protected against matters that aren't on the matrícula, and Law 14.382/2022 added that court certificates aren't needed to prove good faith. Many lawyers still pull them, because tax debt works by a separate rule: a sale by a debtor whose debt is already enrolled is presumed fraudulent, whatever the buyer knew, unless the debtor kept enough assets to pay (National Tax Code, art. 185; STJ Tema 290). The title guide sets out that argument and the full list of certificates.

Two debts follow the property to the new owner. Unpaid IPTU, the city property tax, stays attached to the property and lands on you unless the deed records that it was paid (art. 130 of the same Code). You may waive the tax certificates at the notary, and if you do, you answer for what is owed (same decree, art. 1, §2). Unpaid condominium fees move to the new owner too, with fines and interest on top (Civil Code, art. 1.345). The condominium page teaches you to read a building's accounts.

Bringing the money in

Foreign exchange in Brazil runs only through institutions authorized by the Banco Central (Law 14.286/2021, art. 3), and the client answers for the stated purpose of each transfer (art. 4, §2). State the purpose, and describe it the same way on every document.

Older guides tell buyers to register the money at the Banco Central or lose the right to send it home. That advice needs checking. Resolution 278 of 2022, from the Banco Central, defines foreign direct investment as a stake in a Brazilian company, or another economic right whose return depends on business results, and it puts the reporting duty on the Brazilian entity receiving the money (arts. 2 and 17). One Brazilian law firm reads this to mean that a purchase in your own name, with no company involved, falls outside that reporting, whether you use, rent or resell the property. A second firm says the reporting doesn't apply automatically to a direct purchase, and still tells buyers to check how the deal is classified. Some consultancies still advise registering. We found no Banco Central text on property purchases, so put the question to your bank and your lawyer, and get the answer in writing. A purchase through a Brazilian company is a different structure with its own filings.

Whatever the answer, keep the FX contract, the transfer receipts and the deed. Banks can ask for them when the sale money leaves.

IOF, the tax on FX, sits at 0.38% for inflows with no specific rate (art. 15-B of the IOF decree, 6.306 of 2007, as worded by Decree 12.499/2025). The 2025 IOF decrees were challenged in Congress and at the STF (ADC 96), so ask the bank to show the IOF on the quote. On R$ 1,000,000 that is R$ 3,800. The spread is a separate cost and it varies by bank.

Art. 13 of the same FX law allows a foreign-currency clause if either side lives abroad, leases excepted. Taxes and registry fees are still charged in reais. A price fixed in reais leaves you carrying the exchange rate until closing. With the dollar at R$ 5.42, R$ 1,000,000 costs about US$ 184,500. At R$ 5.00 it costs US$ 200,000. That arithmetic is the reason to fix the transfer date in your plan. It isn't a forecast.

Don't agree to pay part of the price abroad. One of those law firms says paying for Brazilian property in foreign currency outside Brazil isn't permitted, and it leaves no FX contract behind you. The guide to sending money has the bank paperwork, and the guide to financing options covers buyers who won't pay cash.

ITBI and the deed

ITBI is the city's tax on a paid transfer of property. São Paulo charges 3%. Other cities set their own rate, listed in the closing costs guide.

The base is contested. In February 2022 the STJ decided Tema 1113 (REsp 1.937.821, from São Paulo), holding that the base is the property's value in normal market conditions, that the declared price is presumed right, that the city can only challenge it through an administrative process, and that a city can't impose a reference value of its own in advance. Then Complementary Law 227 of January 2026 changed the National Tax Code, art. 38. It now defines the base as the cash price the property would bring in a normal market, estimated by the city on technical criteria it must publish, and the taxpayer can contest the estimate. One law firm argues this undercuts Tema 1113. In May 2026 the São Paulo state court held that the new law doesn't allow automatic use of a reference value, and that it doesn't reach earlier transfers. No STJ ruling on the new text turned up in this research. Suppose you declare R$ 1,000,000 while the city's figure is R$ 1,200,000. At 3%, the difference is R$ 6,000.

Timing is also unsettled in practice. The STF said in 2021 that the tax falls due only on registration (ARE 1.294.969, Tema 1124), and in 2022 reopened the case for assignments of rights. A draft rule letting cities offer a discount for early payment, art. 35-A, was vetoed in January 2026. Buyers usually pay first, because the notary notes the payment in the deed (art. 1, §2 of Law 7.433/1985).

A public deed is required above 30 minimum wages (Civil Code art. 108). With the 2026 wage of R$ 1,621, that means R$ 48,630. In practice, almost any home.

Three things to check at the signing:

• The seller's spouse. A married seller needs the spouse's consent unless the couple married under absolute separation of property (art. 1.647). Without it, the sale can be annulled up to two years after the marriage ends (art. 1.649).
• Your own marriage. Your property regime follows the law of the country where you and your spouse were domiciled when you married (Decree-Law 4.657/1942, art. 7, §4). The deed records it, so bring the marriage certificate.
• The price. A deed with a false price is a simulated act and is void (art. 167). A low figure saves ITBI today and raises your taxable gain when you sell.

If the seller lives abroad, the tax on the gain lands on your side of the table. Art. 26 of Law 10.833 of 2003 makes the buyer responsible for withholding it, or the buyer's procurador (the attorney holding the power) when the buyer also lives abroad. The rate starts at 15% and rises to 22.5% on the part of a gain above R$ 30 million (Law 13.259/2016). For a seller who lives in a low-tax country, art. 8 of Law 9.779 of 1999 sets 25%, in wording broad enough that your lawyer should test it. A seller who paid R$ 600,000 and sells for R$ 1,000,000 has a gain of about R$ 400,000, so about R$ 60,000 in tax. Settle who files it before you sign. The older Revenue instruction, IN SRF 208/2002, art. 27, speaks of the seller or the seller's procurador paying, so your lawyer should read both. The selling guide covers the seller's side.

Registering the deed and the first weeks after

Each property belongs to one registry office, fixed by location (art. 169 of the Public Registers Law). Once the deed is logged, the registrar must either register it or issue a nota devolutiva, a written list of defects, within 10 business days. A sale deed with no special clauses, or a document filed electronically through Serp, the national electronic registry system, gets 5 days (art. 188). Answer a nota devolutiva at once. If the title isn't registered within 20 days of logging because you didn't meet the requirements, the priority of that filing ends (art. 205).

When the registry finishes, order a new copy of the matrícula and read the last entry. It should name you, your CPF, your marital status, the price and the deed. That copy is your proof of ownership. Under art. 19, §11, a full copy is enough to prove ownership, rights and charges.

In the first weeks:

• Change the IPTU file at the city and the condominium account at the building. National law lets cities tax any possessor (National Tax Code, art. 34), so the name on an IPTU bill proves nothing about ownership, and old bills in the seller's name can still reach the property.
• On federal land, ask for the transfer at the federal land office within 60 days. Late requests carry a fine of 0.50% a month on the land value (Decree-Law 2.398, art. 3, §§4 and 5).
• Put your CPF update in the calendar. Foreigners with an address abroad must do it every calendar year, as the CPF guide explains.
• Before you take a first tenant, read the short-let rules and the rental tax guide.
• Think about succession. Only Brazilian courts can hear cases on property in Brazil (art. 12, §1, of the same decree-law). The inheritance guide covers what that means for a foreign family.

A worked cost example

Take a São Paulo city apartment priced at R$ 1,000,000 (about US$ 184,500), paid in cash with money from abroad. These are the 2026 São Paulo tables. Other states publish different ones, and the fees are fixed by state law, so they aren't negotiable.

What isn't in the table: the bank's FX spread, certificates, sworn translations, a power of attorney, a broker if your contract makes you pay one. The notary fee rises slowly with price, so on a cheaper home it is a bigger share. On a R$ 500,000 home in the same city, the deed costs R$ 5,427.43 and registration R$ 3,284.18, together about 1.7%.

Federal land adds a 5% laudêmio on the land value, which that decree-law places on the seller. Check that the seller has paid it, because the notary can't write the deed without the federal certificate.

Every market's ITBI and registry figures are in the closing costs table, and the property tax guide covers what you pay each year after that.

What the 2025 and 2026 tax changes mean for a buyer

Three recent changes touch a purchase. None changes the order above.

The consumption tax reform. Complementary Law 214/2025 brought in two new taxes, IBS and CBS. Test rates of 0.1% and 0.9% applied in 2026, CBS takes over from federal taxes in 2027, and the old ICMS and ISS end in 2033 (Constitutional Amendment 132/2023). For property, an individual counts as a taxpayer only after selling more than three distinct properties in the prior year, or more than one that the seller built within the prior five years (art. 251). The law also limits the sales rule to properties held under five years (art. 251, §3). So a one-off sale by a private owner stays outside it, and a sale by a developer falls inside it, at half the standard rate (art. 261). Commentators read the conditions differently, and Complementary Law 227/2026 revised the next articles, 252 and 253, which refer back to it, so have your lawyer read the current text if your seller is a frequent one. The off-plan guide covers purchases from developers.

The national property number. Revenue Instruction IN RFB 2.275/2025 made the CIB (Cadastro Imobiliário Brasileiro) the single identifier for each property in the Sinter federal land system. Sources give different dates: one commentary reads the instruction as August 2026 for notaries, registries and state capitals and August 2027 for other cities, while others say January 2026 and January 2027. It also brings a yearly reference value for each property, which tax authorities can use as evidence and you can contest. Expect to see the code on documents, and expect the reference value to come up in ITBI disputes.

Income tax. Law 15.270/2025 created a minimum tax on individuals with income over R$ 600,000 a year, starting at the 2026 calendar year, and a 10% tax on dividends paid abroad. Capital gains are deducted from the minimum tax base (art. 16-A, §1, I), and its few mentions of real estate cover real estate bonds, listed property funds and business rent, not a home purchase. A purchase in your own name isn't affected. Holding through a company is, because of the dividend rule.

Where the rules change by place

• Seafront plots. Federal coastal land, called terreno de marinha, reaches 33 meters inland, measured from the line of the 1831 high tide (Decree-Law 9.760, art. 2). Ask about it before you offer on the seafront in Boa Viagem, Ponta Verde or Meireles. The matrícula or the federal file will tell you.
• Islands. Coastal islands belong to the Union, except those holding a municipal seat, and marine land stays federal even there (Constitution, art. 20, IV and VII, after Amendment 46/2005). Florianópolis is a seat. In an island town such as Morro de São Paulo, ask which island holds the seat, because that decides who you are dealing with.
• Possession claims. In Trancoso, the Bahia state court stopped building on part of a 300-hectare resort project, reported in 2018, after finding the works had spread onto a farmer's 28-hectare plot. She says she has lived there since 1973. Papers don't end a possession claim, and land sold with no registered title carries more of that risk. The posse guide explains how to read it.
• Rural status. A plot outside the urban zone may count as rural, even near a popular beach such as Praia do Rosa or Caraíva. Ask the city and read the matrícula before a foreign non-resident goes any further.
• Hillsides and rivers. In a hill town such as Petrópolis, give the flood and landslide risk maps the same time you give the title.

The market pages carry each city's own tax rates and local rules, and you can compare them side by side.

Where purchases go wrong

• Money before the matrícula. The regional brokers' council in Paraíba warned in July 2026 about fake listings, deposits collected by people who then vanish, and the same unit sold twice. A matrícula costs little and shows who the owner is.
• A power of attorney nobody checked. In Goiás in 2015, police stopped a R$ 2 million fraud in which someone posed as the owners of vacant units, using forged documents to obtain powers of attorney. Staff at a registry office noticed the man didn't look the owner's age. Call the notary who issued any power of attorney and contact the owner through a route the seller's side didn't give you.
• Sharing the seller's lawyer. Their job is the seller's interest. A shared lawyer saves a fee and leaves your side of the contract unread.
• Stopping at the deed. Until it's registered, you aren't the owner.
• Ignoring home-country rules. Your own country may tax the property or require you to report a foreign account or asset. Ask an accountant there before you buy.

Questions

Sources

1. Planalto, Civil Code, Law 10.406/2002 (arts. 108, 167, 417 to 420, 462, 463, 490, 657, 723, 1.227, 1.245, 1.246, 1.345, 1.417, 1.418, 1.647, 1.649)
2. Planalto, Public Registers Law, Law 6.015/1973 (arts. 19, 169, 176, 188, 216-B)
3. Planalto, Law 13.097/2015, arts. 54 to 58
4. Planalto, Law 14.382/2022 (Serp and registry changes)
5. Planalto, Law 7.433/1985 (documents for notarial acts)
6. Planalto, Decree 93.240/1986 (certificates for deeds)
7. Planalto, Law 5.709/1971 (foreigners and rural land)
8. Planalto, Law 6.634/1979 (border strip)
9. Planalto, Decree-Law 9.760/1946 (federal land, arts. 2 and 205)
10. Planalto, Decree-Law 2.398/1987 (laudêmio and SPU certificate, art. 3)
11. Planalto, Constitution, art. 20
12. Planalto, FX Law 14.286/2021
13. Banco Central, Resolution BCB 278/2022 (text at Datalegis)
14. Planalto, Decree 6.306/2007, art. 15-B (IOF), with 2025 amendments
15. Alves Jacob, Foreign buyers and Banco Central registration
16. NR Advogados Imobiliários, Buying property with money from abroad, 2026
17. Capital Aberto, Foreign investors in Brazilian real estate
18. STJ, Base of ITBI is market value, Tema 1113, REsp 1.937.821/SP, 2022
19. Planalto, National Tax Code, Law 5.172/1966 (arts. 34, 35, 38, 130, 185, as amended by Complementary Law 227/2026)
20. TAGD Advogados, Changes to ITBI in Complementary Law 227/2026, February 2026
21. Tributário nos Bastidores, TJSP on ITBI base after Complementary Law 227/2026, June 2026
22. CNB/SP, STF to re-examine ITBI on assignment of rights, Tema 1124, 2022
23. Dizer o Direito, STJ on tax-debt fraud and Tema 290, REsp 2.170.194-SP, 2026
24. 26º Tabelionato de Notas de São Paulo, Fees and 3% ITBI, 2026
25. CNB/SP, Notary fee table for São Paulo capital, 2026
26. ARISP, São Paulo property registry fee table, 2026
27. Planalto, Decree 12.797/2025 (minimum wage R$ 1,621)
28. Planalto, Law 10.833/2003, art. 26 (withholding on a non-resident's gain)
29. Planalto, Law 13.259/2016 (capital gains brackets)
30. Planalto, Law 9.779/1999, art. 8
31. Receita Federal, IN SRF 208/2002 (text at Contábeis)
32. Planalto, Decree-Law 4.657/1942 (Introductory Law, arts. 7 and 12)
33. Planalto, Constitutional Amendment 132/2023 (reform timetable)
34. CNB/SP, Taxation of property under Complementary Law 214/2025, Rosa Freitas, 2025
35. AdmDireito, Complementary Law 214/2025, art. 251
36. Migalhas, CIB and IN RFB 2.275/2025, Rosa Freitas, October 2025
37. Planalto, Law 15.270/2025
38. IRIB, Correio 24 Horas clipping, land dispute in Trancoso, July 2018
39. Paraíba Business, CRECI-PB warns of recurring scams, July 2026
40. Polícia Civil de Goiás, Illegal property sales, arrest prevents R$ 2 million fraud, 2015
41. Barbieri Advogados, CPF for foreigners and e-Notariado, 2026
42. RKL Advocacia, Broker commission and STJ case law
43. Colégio Notarial do Brasil, STJ upholds passing commission to buyers when disclosed, 2016
44. Colégio Notarial do Brasil, CNJ decision on passports and CPF in notarial acts, 2023