Land Title in Nicaragua
Feb 19th, 2008 by Kevin
Many of our clients ask about how land is titled in Nicaragua. This question is often due to horror stories they have heard about people buying land and then finding out that it isn’t really theirs to buy, which is a large risk factor for many would-be offshore investors.
Thankfully, Nicaragua’s foreign investment law establishes equal treatment of foreign and domestic investment, which eliminates restrictions on the way in which foreign capital can enter the country. They also recognize the foreign investor’s right to own and use property without limitation. Furthermore there are no restrictive visa or work-permit requirements to inhibit investment.
As for land title the majority of property is held as freehold or fee simple title issues and registered in your name. First American Title has the largest presence in Nicaragua. They were the first to offer it in 1999. Stewart Title is also there, and I have read that Land America is also there, but could not confirm this.
That being said, titling property can be a difficult process. You may see a great deal in buying some land off of a native, but this could turn out to be a very painful process. There are many title disputes in this country. Starting from decades ago with the dictatorship in the country, land has been taken, redistributed, taken and given again many times over. When inquiring about a property for sale, the first question to ask is whether the seller truly owns the property. If you’re interested in a property for which the title is not clear, we advise you to move on. Disputes can involve many parties and drag on for years. Coastal dreams only offers property that has already been titled. Yes, we pay a small premium for this but this premium is well worth the risk reduction it affords us as well as our clients.
In our recent trip down there we also found another situation that might entice buyers into something they may regret. In the north, we were offered some pretty cheap property near the beach, which sounded great, but after further discussion we found out that the land was actually owned by a cooperativa (land given by the government to a community of natives to work and sustain a living), and although you would be buying a lot and could put up a house, the natives still had rights to run their livestock on your property. All of a sudden the deal isn’t so great….
Unless you have lots of time and money, and the interest this is yet another reason to let someone else help you bypass these hurdles. We call this ‘offshore investment logistics‘ and for most people, these are things that you may be interested in know about, but you would rather not have to worry about.
