TL;DR: To buy property in Argentina as a foreigner you need: (1) a valid passport, (2) a CDI tax ID, (3) a proof of address, (4) the property's informes de dominio e inhibicion from due diligence, (5) the escritura (deed), and (6) documentation of your funds. You do not need a DNI or residency.
Here is the complete document checklist, in plain order.
Your core identification as a foreign buyer. Everything else builds on it. No DNI and no residency permit are required to purchase.
The non-resident tax ID issued by the tax authority (ARCA, formerly AFIP). It is the one document that lets a foreigner legally appear on the deed. Any Argentine accountant obtains it with your passport and a proof of address, often before you arrive. This is the document that most often holds buyers up, so get it moving first.
A utility bill, bank statement, or equivalent from your home country, used to obtain the CDI and to satisfy standard verification. Simple, but have it ready.
These are the property's due-diligence documents, obtained by your chosen escribano: the informe de dominio (who owns it, and any liens or claims) and the informe de inhibicion (confirmation the seller is legally able to sell). They are not your documents to produce, but they are essential to the transaction and they are what confirm the title is clean before you pay. The buyer traditionally chooses the notary who pulls them.
The deed itself, drawn up and certified by the escribano and signed at closing, then registered with the property registry to make your ownership public record. This is the document that transfers the property into your name.
Proof of where your money came from and a record of how it entered the country, through a formal route (official MULC or the legal financial-dollar CCL) into a named local account. This is what keeps your title clean and your eventual sale and exit straightforward. Funding through the informal blue dollar undermines exactly this.
The document list for a foreign buyer in Argentina is short and unintimidating. Two you provide upfront (passport, proof of address), one you obtain through an accountant (CDI), two the escribano produces (the informes and the deed), and one you keep clean throughout (funds documentation). Get the CDI moving early and the rest falls into place in order.
We assemble this entire checklist for every foreign client so nothing is missing at the closing table. The first call is free, and we will tell you exactly which items you already have and which we need to start.
Max.-
Thirty minutes. Free. In English. We answer everything in this note plus everything not in it.
