Buying
Eight steps, in the order they actually happen.
There is no escrow agent, no title insurer and no closing table. The notaría and the public registry do that work instead, and the order matters more than people expect.
1. Decide what the money is for
A place to live, a rental yield, and a purchase that has to qualify for an investor visa are three different briefs and they point at different buildings. Say which one it is at the start — the visa threshold in particular constrains the price floor and cannot be fixed retroactively.
2. Get your funds into Colombia the right way
This is the step foreigners most often get wrong, and it happens before you have chosen a property. Money brought in to buy real estate should be channelled through an authorised exchange intermediary — a bank or exchange house — and declared as an international investment on Formulario No. 4. Money that arrives as a plain transfer under Formulario No. 5 is not registered foreign direct investment. It cannot be counted toward an investor visa, and it complicates your right to send sale proceeds back out later. The full explanation is here, and it is worth reading before you move a peso.
3. Search, with the understanding that there is no MLS
Colombia has no single authoritative listings database. Inventory is spread across portals, agency sites, building administrators and porters, and the same unit is routinely advertised at different prices by different people. Practical consequence: exclusivity is rare, the "listing agent" may have no formal mandate, and you should ask who is representing whom.
4. Verify before you offer
The certificado de tradición y libertad, issued by the Oficina de Registro de Instrumentos Públicos, is the property's complete legal history — ownership chain, mortgages, embargoes, liens, and any limitation on the title. It should be recent, typically no more than thirty days old. Alongside it: paz y salvos for predial and administración, the propiedad horizontal regulations, and confirmation that the built area matches what is registered.
5. Promesa de compraventa
The binding preliminary contract. It fixes price, deadlines, who pays what, and the consequences of default — usually a penalty clause. A deposit is customary. Do not sign this document because it is "just the promise": in Colombian practice this is where your position is decided, and the escritura mostly executes what the promesa already agreed.
6. Escritura pública at the notaría
The notary drafts the public deed, both parties sign, and notarial rights are paid. Those rights run at roughly 0.54% of the transaction value and by commercial custom are split evenly between buyer and seller, so about 0.27% each. The taxable base is the higher of the declared price and the avalúo catastral, which occasionally surprises people who negotiated hard.
7. Registration
Signing does not transfer ownership against third parties. The deed must be inscribed at the Oficina de Registro de Instrumentos Públicos, and that is when the departmental impuesto de registro and the SNR registration rights fall due. In Antioquia the departmental rate is 1%. Registration typically takes on the order of one to three weeks.
8. Delivery
Physical handover with an acta de entrega: meter readings, utilities up to date, inventory if furnished, and keys. Get the administración account confirmed in writing as being at zero, because in propiedad horizontal an unpaid balance follows the unit, not the previous owner.
What it costs the buyer
| Item | Who pays | Approx. |
|---|---|---|
| Notarial rights (half of ~0.54%) | Buyer | 0.27% |
| Impuesto de registro, Antioquia | Buyer | 1.00% |
| Derechos de registro (SNR) | Buyer | ~0.87% |
| Appraisal and title study, if financing | Buyer | variable |
| Typical buyer total | ~2.1–2.5% |
Sources: notarial rights under Resolución RES-2026-000964-6 of the Superintendencia de Notariado y Registro, in force from 1 February 2026. Departmental impuesto de registro for Antioquia at 1%, per Ordenanza 29 of 2017. Figures are estimates for budgeting; your notaría issues the binding liquidation.
Timeline
From accepted offer to keys, a straightforward cash purchase commonly runs four to eight weeks, most of it spent on document verification and registration rather than negotiation. Financing, an estate in the chain of title, or a property with an unresolved annotation on the certificado will extend it.