You can buy an apartment in Medellín next month. No visa, no residency, no Colombian partner. Foreigners own Colombian real estate in their own name every day, and the process is faster than in most of Europe.
What almost nobody tells buyers is that under Colombian exchange rules, buying that apartment is foreign direct investment, and an unregistered foreign direct investment cannot legally be turned back into money outside Colombia. People discover this at the exit, five years later, sitting on a sale they cannot repatriate.
This article covers the purchase process, what it costs, what you pay annually, what you pay when you sell, and the registration step that determines whether any of it can leave the country.
Figures verified 9 September 2026.
Can foreigners actually buy property in Colombia?
Yes, and freely. There is no general nationality bar on owning Colombian real estate, no visa requirement to hold title, and a registered foreign investment carries an express national treatment right: the law treats your capital the same as a Colombian’s.
Two areas do carry restrictions worth asking your lawyer about specifically: indigenous resguardos and Afro-descendant collective territories, where the land is not alienable, and certain border and rural land questions where the position is more complicated than most expat guides admit. If your purchase is rural, agricultural, or near a frontier, treat “foreigners can buy freely” as a starting point and not an answer.
For a standard urban apartment or house, you can buy.
What is the purchase process, step by step?
Colombian conveyancing has five stages, and one of them is not where most foreign buyers think it is.
1. Estudio de títulos. Your lawyer traces the chain of title through the certificado de tradición y libertad, issued by the Oficina de Registro de Instrumentos Públicos (ORIP). This document shows every recorded act affecting the property: mortgages, embargoes, prior transfers, litigation annotations. It is cheap and non-negotiable.
2. Promesa de compraventa. The preliminary contract. It fixes price, deposit, timelines and penalties for non-performance. It is not legally mandatory but it is standard practice, and going without one on a foreign purchase is a bad idea.
3. Escritura pública. The deed of sale, drafted and signed before a notaría.
4. Payment. Funds are settled, and if you are a non-resident buyer, this is where the money must be canalised through an intermediario del mercado cambiario (IMC) or a registered compensation account. More on this below, because it is the whole game.
5. Registro. The escritura is registered at the ORIP. This is the step that actually transfers title in Colombia, not the signature at the notary. A signed but unregistered deed does not make you the owner.
Foreign buyers routinely misunderstand step 5 and relax after step 3. Do not.
The point almost everyone misses: your purchase is foreign investment
Under Decreto 1068, Art. 2.17.2.2.1.2(a)(iii), the acquisition of immovable property by a non-resident is expressly foreign direct investment. It sits in the same category as buying shares in a Colombian company or capitalising a branch.
That means it has to be registered, and registration is not a separate bureaucratic errand. When the funds are channelled correctly through an IMC or a compensation account, with the required data attached, the exchange declaration itself operates as the registration. Do the transfer right and you are registered. Wire the money as an ordinary international transfer and you are not.
What a registered investment gives you is the right to remit the proceeds of a sale abroad in freely convertible currency. What an unregistered one gives you is a valid title and a stranded asset.
The penalty side is real too. Supersociedades (Concepto 202508 de 2022) confirms a fine of up to 200% of the amount of the exchange infraction, and for repeat offenders a ban on exchange operations of not less than one and not more than five years.
We have set out the mechanics, including what to do about a purchase already made the wrong way, in registering foreign investment with the Banco de la República. If you are at the earlier stage of choosing how to hold Colombian assets at all, start with the guide to investing in Colombia from abroad.
What does it cost to close?
Here we have to be careful, because the numbers circulating online are a mix of statutory tariffs and grossed-up portal estimates, and they are not comparable.
| Cost | What it actually is | Who normally pays |
|---|---|---|
| Derechos notariales | 0.3% (3 por mil) statutory tariff on the value of the act, before IVA and copies | Customarily split 50/50, negotiable |
| Derechos de registro (national) | Roughly 1.1% | Buyer |
| Impuesto de registro (departmental) | 0.5% to 1%, and it genuinely varies by department | Buyer |
| Certificado de tradición y libertad | Small fixed fee | Buyer |
| Retención en la fuente on the sale | Typically 1% of the sale price, an advance against the seller’s tax | Seller |
Two warnings about figures you will see elsewhere.
The notary fee. Property portals frequently quote 0.54%. The statutory tariff is 0.3%. The higher number appears to be the tariff grossed up for IVA, copies and related charges rather than a different tariff. Budget for “roughly 0.3% before IVA and copies,” and ask the notaría for a written quote for your specific act.
The “1.67% registration” figure. This is published all over the internet as if it were a single national rate. It is not. It is two separate charges: a national component of roughly 1.1% plus a departmental component of 0.5% to 1% that changes depending on where the property sits. Do not model 1.67% as a fixed national number. Get the departmental rate for Antioquia, Cundinamarca, Valle or Bolívar, or wherever you are actually buying.
There is also a stamp duty question on higher-value transfers. We are not publishing a threshold or a rate for it here, because it is not on our verified list and the figure has moved. If you are buying at the top of the market, ask your lawyer directly whether impuesto de timbre applies at your price point before you sign the promesa.
A worked closing estimate
On a COP $800,000,000 apartment, using the statutory tariffs above:
| Item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Notary, statutory tariff | 0.3% × $800,000,000 | $2,400,000 before IVA and copies, customarily split |
| Registration, national | ~1.1% × $800,000,000 | ~$8,800,000 |
| Registration, departmental | 0.5%–1% × $800,000,000 | $4,000,000–$8,000,000 |
| Buyer’s approximate registration burden | ~$12,800,000–$16,800,000 |
Treat this as an order of magnitude, not a quote. The departmental spread alone is COP $4 million on this purchase.
What do I pay every year?
Impuesto predial
The annual municipal property tax. The base is the avalúo catastral, the official cadastral value, and rates are set by each municipal council within a statutory band. That means Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena and Santa Marta all charge differently, and residential, commercial and vacant-lot rates differ within each city.
We are not publishing a rate table here because a national table would be misleading. Ask for the predial history of the specific property before you buy: it is a matter of record, the seller can produce it, and it tells you the real number rather than a range. Most cities offer an early-payment discount, which is worth calendaring.
Impuesto al patrimonio, if you hold the property directly
This is the exposure that surprises foreign owners most, and it is barely covered in English.
Non-residents are liable for Colombian wealth tax on directly held Colombian assets. For 2026 the threshold is 72,000 UVT, which at UVT 2026 of $52,374 is $3,770,928,000. Above it, marginal rates of 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% apply, with the top rate transitional through 2026 and then reverting to 1.0%. Confirm the band boundaries with an adviser before you model anything.
Two corrections, because both errors are widely published:
- Decreto 240 de 2026’s 200,000 UVT emergency wealth tax applies only to companies (personas jurídicas). It is not an individual tax.
- Several tax blogs still show an individual threshold of 40,000 UVT. That came from a decree that did not survive constitutional review and is not current.
The word doing the work above is directly. Property held through a Colombian company is on that company’s balance sheet, which is a different analysis entirely. If you are near the threshold, holding structure is a decision to make before purchase, not after.
Rental income
If you let the property, you have Colombian-source income. The withholding rate on rent for immovable property is 3.5%, with a floor of 10 UVT, but the tenant only withholds if the tenant is a withholding agent. Rent to a private individual and nobody withholds, which does not mean nobody owes. That combination is how foreign landlords routinely end up filing without expecting to. See rental income for non-resident owners.
What do I pay when I sell?
Ganancia ocasional at 15%, where the property was held as a fixed asset for two years or more. Held for less than two years, the gain is ordinary income and taxed on the ordinary schedule instead, which is materially worse.
The 1% retención en la fuente collected on the sale is an advance, not a separate tax. It is credited against what you owe.
Worked example
Buy at COP $800,000,000. Sell four years later at COP $1,200,000,000.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sale price | $1,200,000,000 |
| Cost base | ($800,000,000) |
| Gain | $400,000,000 |
| Ganancia ocasional at 15% | $60,000,000 |
| Less retención already collected (1% of $1,200,000,000) | ($12,000,000) |
| Balance payable | $48,000,000 |
Your real cost base includes acquisition costs and qualifying improvements, properly documented, so keep every invoice from the day you buy. Undocumented renovation spend is gain.
There is a casa de habitación exemption of 5,000 UVT on gains from a main home. Whether a non-resident who does not live in the property can claim it is doubtful, and we are not going to tell you it applies. Ask before you rely on it.
Then there is the second gate. Paying the tax does not by itself let you move the proceeds abroad. That requires the investment to have been registered. See repatriating money from Colombia.
Six points to carry into the closing
- Foreigners can buy Colombian property freely, in their own name, without a visa.
- Title transfers at registro, not at the notary.
- Budget closing costs from the statutory tariffs, and get the departmental registration rate for the actual department. The “1.67%” you read online is two variable charges added together.
- Your purchase is foreign direct investment and must be registered. Correct canalisation through an IMC is what makes registration happen.
- Held directly, the property can expose you to Colombian wealth tax as a non-resident.
- Sell after two years and the gain is taxed at 15%, with the 1% retención credited against it.
The two moments where an hour of professional time pays for itself many times over are the wire transfer and the escritura. Both are cheap to get right and very expensive to unwind.
The Colombian Accountant advises foreign buyers on the tax and exchange-control side of Colombian property: making sure the funds arrive through a channel that registers the investment, holding structure, and the eventual exit. If you have a purchase in progress, or one you completed without registering, talk to us before the next step.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a Colombian bank account to buy property here? Not necessarily to hold title, but you do need the funds to enter through a regulated channel: an IMC or a registered compensation account. How the money arrives matters more than where it lands.
I already bought and nobody mentioned registration. What now? You own the property. What you may not have is the exchange right to take the sale proceeds out. Do not try to fix it by moving money around. Take it to a specialist in exchange regulation promptly, because there is an infraction exposure of up to 200% of the amount involved and the position rarely improves with delay.
Is there a capital gains exemption if I sell my Colombian home? There is a casa de habitación exemption of 5,000 UVT, but its availability to a non-resident who does not live in the property is genuinely doubtful. Confirm your specific position rather than assuming it applies.
Does buying property get me a visa? There is an M investor visa route based on property, at a threshold of 350 SMMLV, which is $612,816,750 in 2026. It is a separate application from the purchase and it does not happen automatically. Note that the threshold rose sharply in January 2026 with the 23% minimum wage increase, so pre-2026 figures understate it.
Will owning Colombian property make me a Colombian tax resident? No. Tax residency depends on days present: more than 183 in any rolling 365-day window. Owning an asset here does not trigger it. Spending time here does.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Colombian tax law changed materially between December 2025 and September 2026, including a rejected reform, two economic emergencies, and Constitutional Court rulings that struck or suspended several decrees. Figures were verified on 9 September 2026 and address the rules in force for 2026 and the AG2025 return. Transaction costs and municipal rates vary by department and municipality. Confirm current figures with a qualified professional before acting.