How buying property in Peru works: due diligence, then a notary

The 50 km border rule

Foreigners generally can't own property within 50 kilometers of Peru's borders without special authorization. It affects parts of the Amazon, the far north and the far south. A city can sit outside the strip while a rural lot an hour away sits inside it.

So don't guess from a town name. Punta Sal is in Tumbes; parts of Loreto, Madre de Dios, Tacna and Puno need a measurement. Your lawyer should check the exact coordinates. San Martín, where I live, is well away from the borders. The rule applies to foreigners, so Peruvian citizens aren't affected by it.

SUNARP: what the registry shows

SUNARP is Peru's public property registry. Three documents come up constantly:

• Partida registral. The property's file number in the registry. It's the address of the record.
• Certificado literal. A certified copy of the current entry: how the property is described, who the registered owner is, and any notes on the file.
• Certificado de gravámenes. A certificate of burdens: mortgages, liens, embargoes and other claims. Read a fresh one close to signing, not six months earlier, because files change.

The registry is what later buyers and banks believe. A private contract that never gets registered is how people discover they bought a story.

Titled land and possession-only land

Registered title means the owner is in SUNARP. Possession means physical control. A constancia de posesión records that someone is in possession. It's common in rural areas and the jungle, and it is not a title.

The risks are concrete. The person in possession may not be able to sell you a registered right. Someone else may have a better claim. You may not be able to get a building permit, a bank or a future buyer to treat the land as yours. Formalization paths exist (COFOPRI for informal urban property, and prescripción adquisitiva after long possession), but both take time and money, and neither is certain. If a deal only works if formalization succeeds, that's a risk to weigh with your lawyer.

Who has to sign

The name on the listing isn't always the person who can sell.

• A spouse. Under the default marital regime (sociedad conyugal), both spouses usually have to sign. A missing signature is how a sale falls apart later.
• Heirs. If the owner died and the estate was never settled, every heir has to be part of the process. One helpful nephew is not the estate.
• Co-owners. Every registered co-owner signs, unless someone has proper authority to sign for the others.

The municipality

The registry says who owns the recorded right. The municipality says what you may build and what's already recognized.

• Zoning and parámetros urbanísticos. Use, height and setbacks. A three-story dream can be illegal on that lot.
• Building permit and conformidad de obra. Permission to build, and later confirmation that what was built matches it.
• Declaratoria de fábrica. The building, registered. If only the land is on the title, the house you walked through may not exist on paper, which changes value, tax and the next sale.
• Unpaid predial or arbitrios. Property tax and municipal fees. Unpaid years get settled in the deal, not discovered after you own it.

Land trafficking, fake sellers and double sales

Peru has fraudulent sales, double sales of the same lot, and land invasions. A careful process is how you catch them:

• The seller's identity matches the registry, not just a WhatsApp name.
• A fresh certificado literal and certificado de gravámenes, read by your lawyer close to signing.
• Someone you trust has stood on the land. Land nobody will let you walk is a stop sign.
• Neighbors have told you who's been there, without treating gossip as a verdict.
• Money moves in a way you can prove later, through a bank trust or the notary.

If people are already living on the land and the seller says "we'll sort them out," that's a problem for your lawyer before any deposit.

How a purchase usually moves

1. Arras, or another separation agreement. A deposit and a written promise with conditions: what you lose if you walk away, and what you get back if the paperwork fails.
2. Minuta. The contract your lawyer prepares for the notary, with the price, property, names and conditions nailed down.
3. Escritura pública. The public deed, signed before a notario.
4. Registration at SUNARP. Until it's registered, the rest of the country hasn't fully absorbed your deed.

Once you've chosen a property and the seller cooperates, a clean purchase often takes a few weeks to a few months. An unsettled estate, possession-only land or a messy file takes longer.

Buying while you're in another country

You can sign through a poder, a power of attorney, granted at a Peruvian consulate or signed abroad with an apostille and an official translation. Keep its scope narrow: one property, one transaction, an end date, and no right to sell your other assets or take a loan. Your lawyer drafts or reviews it.

Rural land: water and the road

A field isn't just a shape on a map. Water rights often run through ANA, the national water authority, and a ditch everyone uses may be a registered right, a custom or a dispute. Easements (servidumbres) are how a road or canal crosses someone else's land with a real right attached.

If the only way in is a track across a neighbor's land and nothing is registered, you own a lot you reach by permission, and permission changes when the neighbor does. I check access on every scouting visit, and your lawyer confirms whether it's a right.

This page is orientation from my own experience, not legal advice. See the glossary for the Spanish terms.