Ecuador

Registering Property in

Ecuador

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: USD 233,012.43
  • City: Quito

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Lawyer prepares the contract

A rough copy of the contract -“Minuta” is prepared by a lawyer.
It is mandatory to hire a lawyer to register property in Ecuador, according to the “Ley de federación de Abogados" of March 7th 1974.
Lawyer’s fees are calculated on the market price of the property.

1-2 days $1,000
2 Obtain a non-encumbrance certificate (“Certificado de gravamenes”) from the Property Registry

A certificate of real estate encumbrances ("Certificado de Gravámenes") must be obtained at the Real Estate Public Registry.
The certificate remains valid for 45 days (with the certificate dated with the request date, and not the date the document is issued). If the registration has not been demanded by then, a new certificate would have to be requested.

Agency: Real Estate Public Registry 		3 days $7.84
* 3 Pay various taxes at the Municipality

These taxes are paid based on the official or on the market value of the property. The Municipality calculates the taxes according to the highest value of the two.
The Property Appreciation tax (a capital gains tax) is also paid at this stage and is calculated on the difference between the sale-price and acquisition-price of the property. In addition, the amount of the tax is reduced taking into account the economic benefits added to the property by the seller and the antiquity of the property. The tax is 10% of the difference. The tax was cut to 0.5% only for the first transfer of any real estate delivered after January 1st, 2006, with a discount of 5% of that for every year old that the property/building is.
The registration tax (1% of the official value) was eliminated.
After payment of the taxes, the Municipality will issue a municipal permit-letter and register the property in the cadastre.

The documentation shall include:
a) Notarized public deed
b) Previous property titles
c) Contracting parties identification documents
d) Encumbrance certificate (obtained in Procedure 2)
e) Copy of the municipal permit for commercial activities for companies for the year in which the transfer is performed (patente municipal);
f) Copy of the Unique Contributors Number (RUC);
g) Copy of the 1.5 x 1000 municipal tax of the companies;
h) Property Appreciation Tax form duly signed by the Seller;
i) Letter of appointment of the legal representatives of both companies;
j) Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Shareholder of both companies in which the board authorizes the legal representative to buy and/or sell the property of the company; Copy of the voting certificate of the legal representatives which appear in the contract;
k) Certificate of payment of the municipal annual tax of the property (impuesto predial)


Agency: Municipality of Quito (Administración Zonal del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito) 		2-3 days (simultaneous with procedures 4 and 5) 1% of property price (Transfer tax, or "Alcabala")
* 4 Pay additional taxes at the Province Council (Consejo Provincial)

Some additional taxes must be paid at the Consejo Provincial de Pichincha (Provincial Council). These taxes were lowered in 2006 in Quito to 0.1% ("Adicional de registro") + 0.01% ("Adicional de alcabala"), and $1.80 administrative fee for each tax (total charge $3.60). The value used to calculate the fees is the highest value between the cadastral value and the contract value. The cadastre was updated in 2005 and the values are reasonably close to reality.

Agency: Province Council (Consejo Provincial) 		1day (simultaneous with procedures 3 and 5) 0.11% of property value (Provincial transfer tax) + $1.80 administrative fee is for each tax
* 5 Pick-up the municipal permit-letter at the Municipality

At the time of payment of the taxes at the Municipality in Procedure 3, a municipal permit-letter is obtained and must be picked-up at the Municipality.
By this time the property is registered in the cadastre.


Agency: Municipality 		1 day (simultaneous with procedures 3 and 4) $11.20
6 Notary notarizes the public deed

The public deed is notarized by a public notary.
Notary's fees were changed according to regulations passed on September 26th 2007. The fees for property transfer over 60,000 US$ are 2 per thousand of the property value up until US$ 1,000. Notaries can also add other general expenses to the fees that cannot exceed USD 4,000.
The receipts of previous payments are attached to the public deed by the notary.

Article 1 of the Official Register No. 178 published on 26-09-2007 by ¨ Consejo Nacional De La Judicatura ¨(Administrative Organism of the Judicial Branch) establishes official Notary Fees according to the contract value:
contract value notary fee
1.00 to 1,000.00 USD 20
1,001.00 to 5,000.00 USD 35
5,001.00 to 10,000.00 USD 50
10,001.00 to 30,000.00 USD 75
30,001.00 t0 60,000.00 USD 100
+ 60,001.00 USD 2x1,000 of the total amount (the top rate is 1,000.00)


 1 day 0.2% (notary fees) + 0.1% (notary's general expenses) of the property value
7 Conduct a general check at the Property Registry

The Municipal permit-letter obtained in Procedure 5 must be taken to the Real Estate Public Registry together with the notarized public deed. The Registry does a general check of the documents and the history of the property.
The documentation shall include:
Public deed (notarized in Procedure 6)
Receipts of tax payments obtained in Procedures 3-4

Agency: Real Estate Public Registry 		2 days No additional cost
8 Pay registration fee at the Property Registry

After the revision, the amount of the registration fee to be paid is obtained from the Registry. The fee is paid according to the sliding scale "Tabla de aranceles de registro de la propiedad" (Resolución del Consejo Nacional de la Judicatura, Registro Oficial 44, 20 de Marzo de 2003), but using cadastral values from 2005. The fee is paid in the same building and office where the documentation is submitted at the property registry.

Agency: Real Estate Public Registry 		1 day $100 + 0.5% of the value of the property exceding $10,000, according to cadastral value of 2005. Max total value $500.
9 Obtain notice of registration from the Property Registry

After payment of the registration fee, the Real Estate Public Registry issues a notice of registration.

Agency: Real Estate Public Registry 		4 days no cost
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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