Nicaragua

Registering Property in

Nicaragua

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: NIO 1,141,327.01
  • City: Managua

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
* 1 Obtain a non-encumbrance certificate ("Libertad de gravamen") from Land registry

The non-encumbrance certificate is an official document that shows all the owners of the real property since its first annotation or since the time that the interested person wants to know. The certificate must be obtained by the seller before starting the transaction formally. The "certificado a manera de titulo" (cost of NIO 100) can also be obtained from the registry, if the original title has been lost. The "certificado de historia registral" (cost NIO 100 + NIO 50 for every additional past transaction) that list all previous transactions related to the property can also be obtained.


Agency: Land registry (Registro Público de la Propiedad Inmueble y Mercantil) 		5 days (simultaneous with procedure 2) NIO 50
* 2 Obtain tax clearance from the Municipality (Solvencia Municipal)

A tax clearance certificate (Municipal Solvency) must be obtained by the seller from the municipality. The timing of 1 day assumes that the seller is up-to-date with tax payments on the property, and that he pays a fee of NIO 20. If he were to wait till the next business day to obtain it, it would be free of charge.


Agency: Municipality 		1 day (simultaneous with procedure 1) NIO 20
3 A notary prepares and signs the public deed

A notary public prepares and notarizes the public deed of purchase and sell between seller and buyer. The preparation of the deed is an exclusive act of the notary. The notary will review all past transactions from the record book on the Land Registry with the documents obtained above, to verify the ownership of the property. In practice, the notaries estimate their fees for this type of contract based on a percent, which varies between 1.5 and 2% of the property value according to agreement between the parties and notary.

2 days 1.5 – 2.0% of property value (notary’s fees)
4 Obtain the Cadastre Certificate and valuation at the Cadastre

Parties must obtain the Cadastre Certificate and request a valuation from an inspector. In practice, the Cadastre requires a special power granted to notaries or any other person when the interested parties cannot realize this procedure. The parties can go to the Cadastre directly, in which case they do not need to present a special power. The Cadastre requests to see original property title (of the Seller).
In case a special power is needed, the costs rise about C$ 2,000 as the fees for the person who will go to the Cadastre, and C$ 1,000 for the notary who will previously authorize and issue the special power.


Agency: Cadastre 		14 – 21 days Cadastre Certificate NIO 360 + Cadastral valuation constancy NIO 100
5 Inspector visits property to assess value

After the cadastral certificate is obtained, an inspector visits the property to assess the value. In practice, one picks up the inspector and drives him/her to the property. It will take the inspector about one week to write the report on the value.

Agency: Tax agency (Catastro fiscal - Direccion General de Ingresos) 		7 days no cost (but must provide transportation to inspector)
6 Payment of Income/Transfer Tax

Payment of Income/Transfer Tax at the Tax Administration Office, an agency of the Treasury Ministry. This percent is established depending on the Cadastre Value.
The Cadastre value generally is not the same as the market price. For the payment of the transfer taxes, the fiscal authority takes as a base of calculation the highest value between the sale price in the public deed of purchase and Cadastral value.
Fees of NIO 4 + 2 stamps of NIO 10 need to be paid to make the payment.
The transfer tax rate of 1% was established by an injunction ("amparo") declaring the increase of the 2003 Ley de Queda Fiscal unconstitutional. An amendment to the Nicaraguan fiscal law entered into force on January 1st, 2010 (Law 712 published in the official Gazette No. 241 of December 21st 2009), changing the tax according to the following sliding scale, from 1% of the value of the property to the following percentages: 1% for properties with a value between US$1.00 and US$50,000.00, 2% for values between US$50,000.01 and US$100,000.00 and 3% for values above US$100,000.01.

Agency: Tax agency (Administracion de Rentas - Direccion General de Ingresos) 		1 day sliding scale: 1% for properties with a value between USD1.00 and USD 50,000.00, 2% for values between USD 50,000.01 and USD 100,000.00 and 3% for values above USD 100,000.01
7 The documents obtained from the Office of Cadastre are inserted in the public deed

A notary will insert the documents obtained from the Offices of Cadastre in the public deed.
1 day NIO 200 (Notary’s fees)
8 Apply for registration of the public deed at the Land Registry

Parties file the public deed at the Land Registry for its proper registration. The amount is calculated based on 1% of the cadastral value, with a maximum fee of NIO 30,000. This payment is made directly in the branch of a commercial bank that is located inside the Land Registry Office. The notary applying for registration will charge C$500 as fees.

At submission, the request for transfer is recorded, signaling priority rights over the property. The registration of property transfers is very slow and can take longer than 90 days. When finalized, the Land registry will write in the original deed, the book and page where the transfer was recorded. This document is then returned to the notary with all the other certificates provided.

The Land registry operates with paper documents. However, the sale deeds are scanned and almost all past records are digitalized in Managua. In the rest of the departments in the country, records are not always accessible digitally. Newer transactions (less than 1 year) are not always digitalized. Any person can access past deeds with computers at the Land registry at no cost.


Agency: Real Estate Registry (Registro Público de la Propiedad Inmueble y Mercantil ) 		15 days (expedited procedure) 1% of cadastral value (registration fee) + NIO 500 (Notary’s fees) + 20% of the registration fee for the expedited procedure
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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