Completion Time Frame: 1-2 days
Completion Costs: $1,000
Points to Note:
A rough copy of the contract -“Minuta” is prepared by a lawyer.
It is mandatory to hire a lawyer to register property in Ecuador, according to the “Ley de federación de Abogados” of March 7th 1974.
Lawyer’s fees are calculated on the market price of the property.

Step 2: Obtain a non-encumbrance certificate from the Property Registry

Completion Time Frame: 3 days
Completion Costs: 7.84
Points to Note:
A certificate of real estate encumbrances (“Certificado de Gravámenes”) must be obtained at the Real Estate Public Registry. The certificate remains valid for 30 days (with the certificate dated with the request date, and not the date the document is issued). If the registration has not been demanded by then, a new certificate would have to be requested.

Step 3: Pay various taxes at the Municipality

Completion Time Frame: 2-3 days (simultaneous with procedures 4 and 5)
Completion Costs: 1% of property price (Transfer tax, or “Alcabala”) + Property Appreciation tax
Points to Note:
Payment of the Property Transfer taxes (1% of official value) and the Property Appreciation tax at the Municipality (1 day).
These taxes are paid based on the official or on the market value of the property. The Municipality calculates the taxes according to the highest value of the two.
The Property Appreciation tax (a capital gains tax) is calculated on the difference between the sale-price and acquisition-price of the property. In addition, the amount of the tax is reduced taking into account the economic benefits added to the property by the seller and the antiquity of the property. The tax is 10% of the difference. The tax was cut to 0.5% only for the first transfer of any real estate delivered after January 1st, 2006, with a discount of 5% of that for every year old that the property/building is.
The registration tax (1% of the official value) was eliminated.
After payment of the taxes, the Municipality will issue a municipal permit-letter and register the property in the cadastre.

The documentation shall include:
Notarized public deed
Previous property titles
Contracting parties identification documents

Encumbrance certificate (obtained in Step 2)

Step 4: Pay additional taxes at the Province Council (Consejo Provincial)

Completion Time Frame: 1day (simultaneous with procedures 3 and 5)
Completion Costs: 0.11% of property value (Provincial transfer tax) + $1.80
Points to Note:
Some additional taxes must be paid at the Consejo Provincial de Pichincha (Provincial Council). These taxes were lowered in 2006 in Quito to 0.1% (“Impuesto adicional de alcabala”) + 0.01% (“Impuesto adicional de registro”), and $1.80 administrative fee. The value used to calculate the fees is the highest value between the cadastral value and the contract value. The cadastre was updated in 2005 and the values are reasonably close to reality.

Step 5: Pick-up the municipal permit-letter at the Municipality

Completion Time Frame: 1 day (simultaneous with procedures 3 and 4)
Completion Costs: no cost
Points to Note:
At the time of payment of the taxes at the Municipality in Step 3, a municipal permit-letter is obtained and must be picked-up at the Municipality.

By this time the property is registered in the cadastre.

Step 6: Notary notarizes the public deed

Completion Time Frame: 1 day
Completion Costs: 2 per thousand (notary fees) + 1 per thousand of the property value (notary’s general expenses)
Points to Note:
The public deed is notarized by a public notary.
Notary’s fees were changed according to regulations passed on September 26th 2007. The fees for property transfers over 60,000 US$ are 2 per thousand of the property value up until US$ 1,000. Notaries can also add other general expenses to the fees, that cannot exceed USD 4,000.
The receipts of previous payments are attached to the public deed by the notary.

Step 7: Conduct a general check at the Property Registry

Completion Time Frame: 2 days
Completion Costs: No additional cost
Points to Note:
The Municipal permit-letter obtained in Step 5 must be taken to the Real Estate Public Registry together with the notarized public deed. The Registry does a general check of the documents and the history of the property.

The documentation shall include:

Public deed (notarized in Step 6)

Receipts of tax payments obtained in Procedures 3-4

Step 8: Pay registration fee at the Property Registry

Completion Time Frame: 1 day
Completion Costs: $275 ($100 + 0.5% of the value of the property according to cadastral value of 2005)
Points to Note:
After the revision, the amount of the registration fee to be paid is obtained from the Registry. The fee is paid according to the sliding scale “Tabla de aranceles de registro de la propiedad” (Resolución del Consejo Nacional de la Judicatura, Registro Oficial 44, 20 de Marzo de 2003), but using cadastral values from 2005. The fee is paid in the same building and office where the documentation is submitted at the property registry.

Step 9: Obtain notice of registration from the Property Registry

Completion Time Frame: 4 days
Completion Costs: no cost
Points to Note:
After payment of the registration fee, the Real Estate Public Registry issues a notice of registration.