Quick answer: Four things are the same for every Latin American buyer in Florida, and they are the ones that go wrong: moving the money and documenting its source, getting an ITIN, planning for FIRPTA withholding at sale, and US estate tax exposure, which is far larger for a non-resident than for a US person. Everything else, capital controls, treaty position, transfer mechanics and financing access, depends on the country, and those have their own pages.
Start with what is not a problem
Two questions dominate the first conversation, and both have short answers.
May I own property here? Yes. There is no citizenship or residency requirement to own Florida real estate. Florida’s SB 264 restrictions, in force since 2023, apply to buyers connected with specific countries of concern and do not reach Latin American buyers generally.
Does buying get me a visa? No. Property ownership creates no immigration status in the United States, at any price. Anyone telling you otherwise is describing a different programme, and the two should never be conflated in a purchase decision.
With eligibility settled, the rest of this page is mechanics, and mechanics are where transactions actually fail.
Moving the money is a documentation exercise
The transfer itself is routine. What is not routine, for buyers used to other markets, is the documentation the closing agent will require about where the funds came from.
Expect to evidence:
| Item | Why it is asked for |
|---|---|
| Source of funds | anti-money-laundering compliance on the closing agent |
| The chain from origin to the closing account | intermediate accounts and exchange houses raise questions |
| Identity and beneficial ownership | especially where an entity is buying |
| Consistency with the contract | the payer should match the buyer on the contract |
Three practical rules save weeks:
Start the compliance conversation early. Ask the closing agent at contract what they will need, in what form and in which language, and begin assembling it then.
Avoid unnecessary hops. Funds arriving from an account in a third country, in a third party’s name, will be questioned, and questions take time that a closing schedule may not have.
Match the names. The person or entity on the contract, on the wire and on the deed should be the same. Changing that late is a legal and tax decision, not an administrative one.
Get the ITIN before you need it
An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number is what a non-resident uses to file US tax returns. You will need it for rental income reporting, for FIRPTA processing, and for any withholding certificate application.
It takes time to obtain, and the moment it becomes urgent is usually a moment when something else is already on a deadline. Start it early. See the ITIN guide for foreign buyers.
FIRPTA is a purchase decision, not a sale problem
The Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act requires withholding on the disposition of US real property by a foreign person, generally 15% of the amount realised, collected at closing rather than assessed 12 months later.
Three points that change how buyers plan:
It is withholding, not tax. The amount withheld is credited against the actual liability, and where the real liability is lower a refund follows, or a withholding certificate may be applied for in advance to reduce the amount withheld at closing.
It is calculated on the amount realised, not on the gain. A sale at a loss can still generate withholding, which is the fact that surprises sellers most.
Exceptions and reduced rates exist, and they depend on price, on the buyer’s intended use and on the structure. They should be assessed before purchase, because the ownership structure chosen at the start affects the position years later.
Plan the exit at the entrance. A buyer who understands FIRPTA at purchase makes better structuring decisions than one who meets it at closing on a sale.
Estate exposure is the underestimated one
This is the item that most often goes unaddressed and carries the largest consequence.
Florida real estate is a US-situs asset. A non-resident alien’s exclusion for US-situs assets is far smaller than a US person’s, on the order of 60,000 dollars unless an applicable estate tax treaty provides otherwise. On a property worth several hundred thousand dollars or more, the exposure is not marginal.
Treaty positions differ by country, and structuring options, personal ownership, an entity, or other arrangements, carry different consequences for income tax, FIRPTA, liability and estate exposure at the same time. There is no single correct answer and there is no answer that is correct for everyone.
Take advice from a US tax professional before purchase, and take it in the same conversation as the ownership structure decision, because the two are the same decision. See the estate tax guide for foreign owners and LLC versus personal title.
Financing exists, on different terms
Conventional agency lending is generally not the route for a non-resident without US credit history. Foreign national mortgage programmes are, and they work differently:
| Feature | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Deposit | larger than a domestic borrower’s |
| Income evidence | documented from the home country, often translated |
| Credit | home-country references rather than a US score |
| Property assessment | full appraisal, and on a condominium a project review |
| Rate and term | priced for the programme rather than the agency market |
The project review matters more than borrowers expect. Reserve funding, owner-occupancy and hotel-type operation are tested on the building, and a project that fails removes conventional lending for every owner in it. Ask for a written project eligibility determination before the contract. See the Florida condos hub and how much deposit a foreign buyer needs.
The holding costs are the same as for anyone
Nothing about being a foreign buyer changes what the property costs to own, and these are the lines that decide whether the purchase works:
- Property tax, without the homestead exemption or the Save Our Homes cap, since those apply only to a permanent primary residence.
- Insurance, with wind and flood normally written separately and priced on the specific address, elevation, roof age and construction.
- Association dues, and on a condominium the reserve funding position and any assessment history.
- A CDD assessment, where the property sits in a master-planned community, appearing on the tax bill.
Get the full itemised tax bill for 3 years, real insurance quotes for the specific address, and on a condominium the reserve study and funding percentage.
Two Florida-specific numbers belong in any model built from abroad:
| Rule | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Condominium milestone inspection | 30 years from completion, or 25 years within 3 miles of a coastline |
| Repeat interval | every 10 years |
| Structural integrity reserve study | required regardless of building age |
| Master insurance repricing | annual on coastal buildings since 2022 |
A buyer arriving from a market where a building’s structural obligations are opaque should treat these as an advantage rather than a burden: the reserve funding percentage is a published number, and it tells you in one figure whether a future assessment is already paid for. Ask for it on every building you consider, alongside 3 years of dues split into reserve contribution and master insurance premium.
See the insurance guide and the condominium safety guide.
Where the country genuinely matters
Everything above is common ground. What is not common ground is how money leaves your own country, what your tax treaty says, and what financing is realistically available to you.
| Country | Where the differences concentrate | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina | capital controls and the mechanics of moving funds abroad | Argentine buyers |
| Brazil | tax treaty position and reporting obligations | Brazilian buyers |
| Colombia | transfer mechanics and documentation | Colombian buyers |
| Mexico | cross-border financing and banking relationships | Mexican buyers |
We keep those as four separate pages deliberately. They are four different subjects, not one subject at four addresses, and a single merged page would answer none of them properly. Read the one that applies to you alongside this page rather than instead of it.
Where to buy, briefly
South Florida is where most Latin American buyers concentrate, and the entry prices are lower than the reputation suggests. Across the buildings covered on this site, Brickell starts near 380,000 dollars, Edgewater near 310,000 and Downtown Miami near 390,000, with Sunny Isles Beach from 480,000 and Downtown Fort Lauderdale from 285,000.
What separates those markets is not the purchase price so much as the building: dues, reserve position, letting rule and lender warrantability. The buildings section covers them individually.
Before you commit
- Confirm the closing agent’s source-of-funds requirements at contract, not at closing.
- Keep the contract, the wire and the deed in the same name.
- Start the ITIN process early.
- Take US tax advice on ownership structure before purchase, covering FIRPTA and estate exposure together.
- Get a written lender determination, and on a condominium a project eligibility review.
- Model the tax without homestead, because it will not apply to a second home.
- Get real insurance quotes for the specific address and the elevation certificate.
- On a condominium, get the reserve study, funding percentage and assessment history.
- Read the country page that applies to you for transfer mechanics and treaty position.
Where this leaves a buyer
Buying in Florida from Latin America is straightforward on eligibility and demanding on paperwork. The transaction rarely fails because a buyer is foreign; it fails because the funds arrived from an unexpected account, the ITIN was started too late, or the ownership structure was chosen without anyone looking at FIRPTA and estate exposure at the same time.
All three are solvable weeks before closing and expensive to solve afterwards. Start with the country page, then the structure conversation, then the property. For the general position see Florida property for foreign buyers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. There is no citizenship or residency requirement to own Florida real estate. Ownership also creates no immigration status of any kind, and no visa follows from a purchase. Those two facts answer most of the questions buyers arrive with, and everything that follows is mechanics rather than eligibility.
The Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act requires withholding on the disposition of US real property by a foreign person, generally 15% of the amount realised, collected at closing rather than assessed later. Exceptions and reduced rates exist, and a withholding certificate may be applied for where the actual tax liability is lower. Plan for it at purchase, not at sale.
Usually yes, at some point. An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number is needed to file US tax returns and to handle FIRPTA and rental income reporting. It takes time to obtain, so start the process early rather than at the point a filing deadline or a closing depends on it.
It is the exposure most buyers underestimate. A non-resident alien's exclusion for US-situs assets is far smaller than a US person's, on the order of 60,000 dollars unless an applicable treaty provides otherwise, and Florida real estate is a US-situs asset. This is a subject for professional advice before purchase, not after.
Yes, through foreign national mortgage programmes, which sit outside conventional agency rules and typically require a larger deposit and a documented income and asset picture from your home country. Expect the lender to assess the property and, on a condominium, the project as well as the borrower.
Considerably, which is why we keep separate pages for it. Capital controls, tax treaty positions, transfer mechanics and financing access differ sharply between Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, and treating them as one subject is how buyers get bad answers.
Tell us your country and we will map the transfer and structure questions
Send us where you are buying from and what you are considering. We will come back with the closing agent's documentation requirements, the ITIN and FIRPTA sequence, the questions to put to a US tax adviser on structure and estate exposure, foreign national financing options, and the building-level position on any condominium.