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Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Guatemala CityQ7.6242 per US$+0.00%
ADVANCE GUATEMALA
Back to the researchResearched · unverified

The investor atlas

Steps of a property purchase and registration timeline

Dossier
Land and property for foreigners15-tierra-propiedad.md
Domain
Who may hold land, and on what titletierra-propiedad
Room
Land/tierra
Audited
not audited

Every sale of real estate requires a public deed before a Guatemalan notary, who drafts it, attests to it, settles the taxes and files the testimonio with the RGP (Conservis Abogados). The sequence for a foreign buyer, per a commercial guide consistent with Conservis: 1) obtain a NIT from SAT with a passport; 2) due diligence with an RGP registry certificate, municipal IUSI clearance and a land-use certificate; 3) promise to sell with a deposit of 5–10%; 4) public deed; 5) payment of taxes; 6) recording of the testimonio at the RGP (2–4 weeks); 7) notarial notices to the municipality and to DICABI. Buying from abroad requires a power of attorney in public deed form, apostilled and protocolized in Guatemala. The timelines are market practice, not law.

The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.

Figures

Inscripción del testimonio en el RGPLiving in Guatemala, guía de compra
2–4 semanaspráctica de mercado (guía comercial)
Arras en promesa de compraventaLiving in Guatemala, guía de compra
5–10%práctica de mercado (guía comercial)

Caveat

sequence and timelines from a commercial guide (c), matching Conservis (b); the audit checked the transcription, not the facts

Sources

Organizations named in the answer

  • Conservis AbogadosLegal guides: sale by public deed before a Guatemalan notary (who drafts it, attests it, settles the taxes and files the testimonio with the RGP), the risk of possessory rights, and requiring IUSI clearance from the sellerSupplier
  • DICABIReceives the notarial notices filed after a sale; its recorded value is one of the bases (together with the RGP and the municipality) for capital gains taxPublic agency

Directory of organizations

Related records

This layer is research: read from public sources by the archive's own team, every claim cited with the date it was consulted, and audited where it is marked so. It has not entered the verified store — no figure here was fetched back from its source or stamped with a retrieval time — so it wears no red provenance numeral and never mixes with the verified figures.