Summary
Yes: Americans can buy property in Uruguay on the same terms as locals, in their own name and with full ownership, and should budget about 6% of the price in buying costs (about 9.5% with an agent).
There is no foreigner quota, no special permit and no visa needed to buy. Americans are a small group: INE counted 353 residence permits granted to US citizens in 2022 and 261 in 2023. And buying does not give you residence: that's a separate Migración procedure.
The buyer's only tax is the 2% transfer tax (ITP) on the cadastral value, which often works out at about 1% of the price. The escribano (notary) charges about 3% plus VAT, so 3.66%, and the agent the same when there is one. On a USD 200,000 apartment, that's roughly USD 12,000 without an agent and USD 19,000 with one.
Owning is cheap in taxes: often USD 400 to USD 1,000 a year in Contribución Inmobiliaria and Primaria for a USD 200,000 apartment. Building charges (gastos comunes) usually cost more.
A mortgage is possible but hard without residence: Santander is the only bank that publishes non-resident rates, 6.75% a year in dollars for a main home and 6.95% for an investment (August 2026), and you should plan on putting down about 40%.
Moving the money is the practical hurdle: only UI 200,000 (about USD 33,000) of the price can be paid in cash under Decree 238/026, the escribano must document where the funds come from, and since 1 January 2026 the US charges a 1% tax on transfers abroad paid in cash or money orders (not on wires from your bank account).
Law 20.446 changed Uruguay's tax holiday for newcomers in 2026: property above about USD 580,000 plus 60 days a year still makes you a tax resident, but the 11-year tax holiday now needs more than 183 days in Uruguay or property above UI 12.5 million (about USD 2.1 million), and it never covers your US tax anyway.
The US still taxes you on everything: rental income from Uruguay goes on your US return (Schedule E, depreciated over 30 years), and so does the gain when you sell.
There is no US–Uruguay income tax treaty (IRS list, September 2025), only a tax information exchange agreement in force since 10 November 2024. The Uruguayan 12% tax on rents and gains can usually be credited on Form 1116; the transfer tax, the property taxes and the wealth tax can't.
The house itself isn't reported to the IRS or on the FBAR when you own it directly, but your Uruguayan bank account is: an FBAR once your foreign accounts pass USD 10,000 in total at any time, and Form 8938 above USD 50,000 at year-end (single, living in the US).
Our advice: buy in your own name unless an estate planner tells you otherwise, wire the money from a US account in your name, open the Uruguayan account with your FBAR in mind, and run the numbers with both a US CPA and a Uruguayan contador before you sign. Then budget 6% to 10% on top of the price.
Ask an agent who knows
Uruguay, for free.
They know which homes sell fast and which sit for months.
Message a proWhat can an American buy in Uruguay, and what paperwork does it take?
Can I buy a home in Uruguay as a US citizen?
Yes. US citizens can buy apartments, houses, condos and residential land in Uruguay, in their own name, without any permit or government approval.
The key person is the escribano, a notary who checks the title, drafts the deed, collects the taxes and registers the property with the Dirección General de Registros. Hire your own: they work for you, not for the seller.
The process is formal and well-documented: unfamiliar for an American used to title companies, but safe if the escribano does the checks.
Are there many Americans buying property and living in Uruguay?
Not many. INE's statistical yearbook counts 353 residence permits granted to US citizens in 2022 and 261 in 2023: a few hundred a year, and down, not up, between those two years.
Americans tend to cluster in Pocitos, Punta Carretas and Carrasco in Montevideo, in La Barra, Manantiales and the Roosevelt area of Punta del Este, and in the old town of Colonia del Sacramento.
The reasons they give are stability, personal safety and a calmer pace of life. Cheap it isn't: in dollar terms, Uruguay is expensive for the region, and the median asking price in Pocitos is about USD 3,956 per m² (INGAR, September 2026).
Do foreigners have the same buying rights as locals?
Yes. Article 22 of the Civil Code gives foreigners the same civil rights as citizens, and Investment Law 16.906 gives foreign investors the same treatment as locals. There's no foreigner surcharge, no quota and no extra tax.
The only nationality-based limit is on rural land: foreign states (not foreign individuals) can't buy farmland. A home in Montevideo, Punta del Este or any coastal town isn't affected.
Can I buy property in Uruguay without a residence permit?
Yes. You don't need a residence permit to buy, and many Americans buy on a tourist entry or from the US.
You can sign in person, or give an apostilled power of attorney to someone in Uruguay. Most buyers still come once, for the visit and the bank.
Buying a home doesn't give you a visa or residence: Uruguay has no golden visa. Legal residence is a separate Migración procedure, and as non-MERCOSUR nationals, Americans use the general route, where you must show means of support.
The hard part of buying remotely is coordination: bank transfers, documents and signatures across time zones. Plan for it from the start.
Can US citizens own land?
Yes. You own the land outright, freehold, just like a local: you can sell it, leave it to your heirs or build on it.
Uruguay has no leasehold-only system for homes, so buying a house means buying the land under it.
Rural land is the only area with extra rules: foreign states can't buy farmland, and the land institute (INC) can have a first-refusal right on sales of 500 hectares or more. A residential lot in Montevideo, Canelones, Maldonado or Colonia isn't affected, but check zoning, access, services and coastal rules before you pay a deposit.
What documents will I need to buy?
A valid US passport, your marital status information, proof of funds and of where the money comes from, and an apostilled power of attorney if you sign remotely. The escribano gets the registry certificates that show the title is clean.
You don't need a Uruguayan tax number to buy one home for your own use. You'll need to register with the DGI if you rent out without an agent, run a business or buy through a company.
A Uruguayan bank account isn't required to buy, but most owners open one to pay property taxes, utilities and building charges. Expect the bank to ask you for a US tax form (W-9): it has to identify American clients under FATCA.
The source-of-funds file is what slows Americans down: bank statements, the sale of a US home, an inheritance, a brokerage account. Get it ready before you make an offer.
Can a foreign-owned company buy property?
Yes, a company (including a US LLC) can own property in Uruguay, and some families use one for co-ownership or estate planning.
For one home, it rarely saves tax and almost always costs more. In Uruguay, a foreign company that holds property must register with the authorities and companies must declare their real owners. In the US, a foreign company can mean Form 5471 (foreign corporation) or Form 8858 (foreign disregarded entity), and a foreign trust means Form 3520: these are long forms with heavy penalties if you forget them.
Inheritance is the usual reason people look at a structure. Uruguay has no inheritance tax as such, but heirs pay the transfer tax (ITP): 3% of the cadastral value for children and parents, 4% for other heirs. US citizens are also subject to US estate tax on their worldwide estate, so ask a US estate planner before choosing a structure.
What taxes and fees will I pay in Uruguay as an American buyer?
What are buyer taxes in Uruguay?
The only buyer tax is the ITP (Impuesto a las Transmisiones Patrimoniales): 2% for the buyer, plus another 2% paid by the seller. On a USD 200,000 apartment (about UYU 8,020,000 or EUR 178,000), budget about USD 2,000 (UYU 80,200 or EUR 1,780), in our estimate.
Why so low: the 2% is charged on the cadastral value set by the government, not on the price, and cadastral values are usually well below market prices. So your 2% often works out at around 1% of what you pay.
Americans pay the same rate as Uruguayans, and the rate doesn't change for a main home or an investment.
What are other closing costs?
All in, plan on about 6% of the price for a cash purchase without an agent, about 9.5% with an agent, and 10% to 13% with a mortgage (INGAR, 2026). On USD 200,000, that's about USD 12,000 (UYU 481,000 or EUR 10,700) without an agent, USD 19,000 (UYU 762,000 or EUR 16,900) with one, and USD 20,000 to USD 26,000 with a loan.
The big lines: the escribano at 3% of the price plus 22% VAT, so 3.66% (about USD 7,320, UYU 294,000 or EUR 6,520, on USD 200,000), and, if an agency brought you the property, its 3% plus VAT, another 3.66%. Certificates, registry filings and stamps add USD 200 to USD 500.
What you can negotiate: the agency commission and the notary's fee. The ITP, registry fees and stamps are fixed.
What surprises Americans most: in Uruguay, the buyer pays the agent too. Both buyer and seller usually pay their own 3% plus VAT, unlike in the US where the seller traditionally covers the commission.
Are there hidden fees foreigners miss in Uruguay right now?
Three things catch foreign buyers: the buyer-side agency commission (3.66% that the listing price doesn't show), building debts or approved repair works in apartment buildings, and mortgage costs if you borrow (at Santander, an arrangement fee of 1.5% of the loan, capped at USD 1,500, plus 0.445% a year in charges on the balance).
Debts follow the property: unpaid Contribución Inmobiliaria, Primaria or gastos comunes stay attached to it. That's why the escribano gets certificates before the deed and holds back what's owed from the seller's money.
After the purchase, the yearly taxes are low: Contribución Inmobiliaria (set by each department) plus Impuesto de Primaria (0.15% to 0.30% of the cadastral value, with an exemption under UYU 282,612). That's often USD 400 to USD 1,000 a year (UYU 16,000 to UYU 40,100) for a USD 200,000 apartment. Building charges usually cost more: UYU 3,000 to UYU 12,000 a month for most two-bedroom flats in Montevideo.
The wealth tax (Impuesto al Patrimonio) is 0.10% for individuals whose net wealth in Uruguay, with property at cadastral value, is above UYU 6,653,000 (about USD 166,000, 2025 tax year). The higher 0.7% to 1.5% rates apply only to non-residents who don't pay IRNR, for example an owner who leaves the home empty all year.
Ask an agent who knows
Uruguay, for free.
They know how buyers here really pay.
Message a pro
Can a US citizen get a mortgage in Uruguay?
Do banks lend to US citizens?
Yes, but it's a short list if you don't live in Uruguay. Santander is the only bank that publishes rates for non-residents (tariff of 7 August 2026). BTG Pactual (the former HSBC Uruguay) has a non-resident line for its Excellence clients, mainly from Argentina and Brazil, with other countries on request, so ask whether they take Americans. BHU, BROU and Itaú publish nothing for non-residents.
Your passport isn't the issue: the real line is between residents and non-residents. With Uruguayan residence and local income, all six lenders are options.
Some banks are slower with Americans because of FATCA: the bank has to identify you as a US person and handle the extra reporting. A clean, complete file helps more than anything else.
What down payment do Americans need?
Plan on about 40% down as a non-resident. BTG Pactual's non-resident line finances up to 60% of the price, and Santander doesn't publish a higher figure for non-residents. On a USD 200,000 home (about UYU 8,020,000 or EUR 178,000), that's USD 80,000 (UYU 3,210,000 or EUR 71,300) down.
Add 10% to 13% of the price in purchase and loan costs, so USD 100,000 to USD 106,000 in cash in total on that USD 200,000 home.
The 80% to 95% financing you see in ads is for residents with local income. And the bank lends on its own valuation: if it comes in under the price, you pay the gap.
What interest rates do US citizens get?
Santander's non-resident rates (7 August 2026) are 6.75% a year in US dollars for a main home and 6.95% for an investment, or 4.75% and 5.72% in UI (Unidad Indexada, an inflation-linked unit), before fees and insurance.
A UI loan looks cheaper, but the balance and the payment rise with Uruguayan inflation (4.68% over 12 months in September 2026). If you earn in dollars, a dollar loan keeps your debt in the same currency as the property and your income.
What it costs: a USD 120,000 dollar loan over 20 years at 6.75% is about USD 900 a month before insurance and fees. Santander caps a dollar loan's payment at 20% of net income, so you'd need about USD 4,500 a month of documented income.
If you can borrow at home for less than 6.75% in dollars, or pay cash, that's usually simpler.
Can I use US income to qualify for a mortgage?
Yes, but with more paperwork than a local salary. Expect to show two years of US tax returns, recent pay stubs or contracts, several months of bank statements and sometimes an employer letter, apostilled and translated into Spanish.
Santander asks for at least 2 years in the same job for employees and 3 years of activity for the self-employed. Its income minimum is low (a household income of UI 10,000, about UYU 66,500 or USD 1,660 a month); the payment cap is what really limits the loan.
If you're self-employed or your income is irregular, a CPA-prepared income statement, a longer bank history and proof of investment or rental income help.
How do you move money from the US to Uruguay for a purchase in 2026?
By bank wire, from an account in your name. Three 2026 rules make that the only sensible route.
Uruguay caps cash: under Decree 238/026, only UI 200,000 (about USD 33,000) of a property price can be paid in cash, or 5% of the price up to UI 450,000 (about USD 75,000). You can't add the two. The rest must go by transfer, bank cheque or another traceable means, and the escribano records how it was paid.
The US now taxes cash remittances: since 1 January 2026, a 1% federal tax applies to money sent abroad through a transfer provider when you pay in cash, by money order or cashier's check (IRS Notice 2025-55). A wire from your US bank account isn't in that category.
And the escribano must check where the money comes from (anti-money-laundering rules supervised by SENACLAFT). A deal can stall at signing if the paper trail breaks.
What to do: wire the funds a few weeks before the signing, keep the statements that show the origin (savings, a home sale, an inheritance), and if the money sits in a Uruguayan account even for a day, count it for your FBAR. If anyone suggests paying part "under the table" to lower the deed price, walk away: it's illegal, and it raises your future capital gains tax in both countries.
Ask an accountant in
Uruguay, for free.
What you pay each year, and when you sell.
Message a proDid Law 20.446 change Uruguay's tax deal for Americans who move there?
Yes, for newcomers. Property worth more than UI 3.5 million (about USD 580,000) plus 60 days a year in the country still makes you a tax resident. But since 1 January 2026, Law 20.446 (the budget law) no longer gives that route the 11-year tax holiday that made Uruguay popular.
For the holiday (the year you qualify plus 10), new residents now need more than 183 days a year in Uruguay, or a much bigger investment: property above UI 12.5 million (about USD 2.1 million) bought since September 1, 2025, or about UI 625,000 a year into the innovation fund, and no Uruguayan tax residency in the 2 previous years. Residents outside that regime now pay 12% on foreign investment income. People who entered the old regime before the end of 2025 keep their conditions, according to tax advisers (Forvis Mazars, July 2026).
For an American, the holiday matters less than the ads suggest: it only covers Uruguayan tax. The US keeps taxing your worldwide income, wherever you live. And if you become a Uruguayan tax resident outside the holiday, your US dividends and interest can be taxed in both countries, with no treaty to sort it out.
What to do: if tax residence is part of your plan, have a Uruguayan contador and a US CPA model your real income before you buy. And remember that tax residence isn't legal residence: the residence card is still a separate Migración procedure.
How do US taxes interact with owning property in Uruguay?
Do I have to declare the property to the IRS from Uruguay?
Not the property itself. A home you own directly in your name isn't reported on Form 8938 or on the FBAR (IRS). But the income it earns is.
Rent goes on Schedule E of your US return, in dollars. You deduct expenses, the Uruguayan property taxes on the rental and depreciation: a foreign residential rental is depreciated over 30 years (US law requires the alternative system for property used mainly outside the US).
When you sell, the gain goes on Form 8949 and Schedule D. If it was your main home for 2 of the last 5 years, the usual US exclusion (USD 250,000, or USD 500,000 for a married couple) works for a home abroad too. Watch the mismatch: Uruguay computes the gain with the cost adjusted for inflation in UI, the US computes it in dollars, so the two gains won't match.
Owning through a company or a trust changes everything: the entity itself becomes reportable (Form 8938, plus Form 5471, 8858 or 3520 depending on the structure).
Will I pay tax twice in the US and Uruguay?
Partly, yes. There's no income tax treaty between the US and Uruguay: Uruguay isn't on the IRS list of treaties (updated through 26 September 2025). So there's no treaty rate and no treaty tie-breaker.
What exists is a tax information exchange agreement, signed on 24 October 2023 and in force since 10 November 2024. It lets the two tax authorities share information; it gives you no tax relief.
Your tool is the foreign tax credit (Form 1116). Uruguay taxes rents and gains at 12% (IRNR for non-residents), and that's an income tax you can generally credit against the US tax on the same income. Example: on a USD 50,000 gain, Uruguay takes about USD 6,000; at a 15% US rate, the US tax is USD 7,500, so after the credit you pay about USD 1,500 more in the US, plus the 3.8% net investment income tax (USD 1,900) if your income is high enough, which the IRS doesn't let the credit offset.
On rent, it often goes the other way: Uruguay collects 10.5% of the gross rent, while US depreciation and expenses shrink your US taxable rent. The unused credit isn't lost: it can be carried back 1 year or forward 10 years, for example to the year you sell.
What you can't credit: the transfer tax (ITP), Contribución Inmobiliaria, Primaria and the wealth tax are not income taxes. On a rental, the property taxes are deductible on Schedule E; on a home you use yourself, foreign property taxes aren't deductible on your US return, and the 2025 tax law didn't change that.
Do I need FATCA reporting when buying?
Not for the house, but probably for the bank account you open to buy and run it.
FBAR (FinCEN Form 114): file it if the total of your foreign accounts goes over USD 10,000 at any time in the year, even for one day while the purchase money sits there. It's filed online with FinCEN, not with your tax return, due 15 April with an automatic extension to 15 October.
Form 8938 (FATCA) goes with your tax return, and its thresholds are higher. Living in the US: more than USD 50,000 at year-end or USD 75,000 at any time if you're single, USD 100,000 or USD 150,000 for a married couple filing jointly. Living abroad: USD 200,000 or USD 300,000 single, USD 400,000 or USD 600,000 for a couple. The penalty for not filing can reach USD 60,000.
Questions to ask your US CPA before you buy: does my structure trigger an entity form, which accounts go on the FBAR and the 8938, how will the rent be taxed in both countries, and how much of the Uruguayan tax will the foreign tax credit really absorb?
Our methodology
This article answers whether, and how, a US citizen can buy property in Uruguay: ownership rights and paperwork, buying and owning costs, mortgages, moving the money, the 2026 tax-residency changes and how US tax rules apply to a home or rental in Uruguay.
Costs and mortgage terms come from official rates (DGI for the transfer tax, Primaria and wealth tax, the Intendencia de Montevideo for Contribución Inmobiliaria) and from published market references: INGAR's 2026 guides and bank comparison, the Cámara Inmobiliaria Uruguaya for commissions and Santander's tariff of 7 August 2026. Residence-permit counts come from INE's statistical yearbook.
Uruguayan rules come from IMPO (Civil Code, Investment Law 16.906, Decree 238/026), the DGI (rental income, capital gains, the 2026 regime for new tax residents) and Migración. US rules come from the IRS (treaty table, Form 8938 and FBAR comparison, FATCA summary, Form 4562 instructions, Notice 2025-55) and the State Department's text of the information exchange agreement.
We checked these figures in October 2026. Peso amounts are converted at about 40.1 pesos per US dollar and 45 pesos per euro (BCU, October 2026). Property is priced in US dollars in Uruguay, while taxes and building charges are billed in pesos; amounts in UI are converted at UYU 6.65 per UI (INE, 1 October 2026).
Limits: the transfer tax and yearly property tax amounts are estimates, because they depend on each property's cadastral value; the 40% down payment is a working figure, since only BTG Pactual publishes a non-resident maximum (60%); and the US tax examples are simplified. This is general information, not tax advice: US rules depend on your whole tax situation, so check with a US CPA and a Uruguayan contador.
Key sources used for this analysis include IRS, table of tax treaties, IRS, Form 8938 and FBAR comparison, IRS, Notice 2025-55, US–Uruguay information exchange agreement, DGI, ITP transfer tax, DGI, annual and seasonal rents, DGI, regime for new tax residents from 2026, RSM Uruguay, tax residency 2026, IMPO, Decree 238/026, Santander Uruguay, mortgage tariff, INGAR, bank comparison 2026 and INE, residence permits by nationality.
Ask an agent who knows
Uruguay, for free.
They know which streets are loud at night and which feel safe.
Message a pro
