Power of Attorney: Buying Buenos Aires Property Remotely

A surprising share of foreign buyers never set foot at their own closing. They buy from New York, from London, from a kitchen table in Sydney, and the keys to a Buenos Aires apartment arrive without them ever boarding a plane. The instrument that makes this possible is the poder, a power of attorney, and used well it is one of the great conveniences of buying here. Used carelessly, it hands a stranger the keys to your money. Here is how to use it well.

What a poder is, and why you would grant one

A poder is a legal authorization letting a trusted person act on your behalf in a defined set of acts, signing the boleto, signing the deed, handling closing formalities. For a foreigner who does not want to fly down twice (once to find, once to sign), or at all, the poder compresses the whole transaction into instructions and a wire.

You can grant a broad power or, far better, a poder especial, a special power limited to this specific transaction and these specific acts. The narrower the power, the smaller the risk. There is no reason to grant a sweeping general power when a tightly scoped one does the job.

How a foreigner grants it from abroad

You do not need to be in Argentina to grant an Argentine poder. The standard path:

1. Sign before a notary in your home country. The poder is drafted to Argentine requirements and signed in front of a local notary public.
2. Apostille it. The document is apostilled under the Hague Convention (or legalized through the relevant consulate where the apostille does not apply), which makes it recognized in Argentina.
3. Translate and register. A sworn (público) translation into Spanish, and registration as required, makes it usable before the Argentine escribano.

Your escribano in Buenos Aires guides the exact wording so the power covers precisely what the closing needs. This is not a form to download; it is a drafted instrument, and the escribano is the right hand on it.

The risk, stated honestly

A power of attorney is trust, written down. Whoever holds it can sign in your name. That is the whole point, and the whole danger. The mitigations are not exotic, they are discipline:

• Scope it narrowly. A poder especial for this transaction only, not a general power over your affairs.
• Grant it to the right person. Your escribano or a vetted professional acting within a regulated, accountable framework, not a casual acquaintance.
• Pair it with controls on the money. The poder signs documents; it should not be the same loose arrangement that also moves your funds without oversight.

Done within a professional structure, the risk is well-contained, which is why remote purchases by poder are routine here rather than reckless. The horror stories almost always trace back to a broad power granted to the wrong person with no oversight on the cash.

Pairing the poder with a remote account

The poder solves signing. The other half of a fully remote purchase is the money: getting funds into Argentina and to the closing table without flying them in physically. A foreign buyer can open a local account remotely, also by power of attorney, and fund the purchase through legitimate channels. We arrange this through our banking relationships, and the mechanics are in our note on the remote-account route. Together, the remote account and the poder are what make a genuinely fly-free purchase possible.

The MGNI way of doing it

We run remote closings often enough that the choreography is settled: the poder drafted to fit the deal, signed and apostilled where you are, the account opened in parallel, the escribano coordinating the signing, and a firm on the ground that you can hold accountable at every step. The foreigner stays home; the transaction comes to them.

There is an old line that the world can move by changing a few words on a page. A property changing hands across two hemispheres, without the buyer present, is exactly that, words, signed in the right order, before the right people. The trick is making sure the words are yours and the people are trustworthy. That is the part we take seriously, and the part a call is for.

Max.-