Buying Property in Paraguay: Experiences, Common Scams and How to Protect Yourself

Anyone looking for experiences with buying property in Paraguay quickly comes across two kinds of stories: enthusiastic expats who bought cheaply and easily – and buyers who lost their money. Both stories are true. The difference rarely lies in luck and almost always in whether things were checked before payment. This article shows the scams that actually occur in Paraguay and the checks that protect you from them.

How serious is the problem?

Serious enough for the German Embassy in Asunción to point it out specifically. It advises particular caution with property transactions: cases keep coming to light in which plots are sold several times or offered by people who are neither the owner nor authorised to sell. And further: enforcing legal claims before Paraguayan courts is often laborious and rarely successful.

That last sentence is the most important one. It means: in Paraguay you are protected above all by what you do before the purchase. What goes wrong afterwards often cannot be repaired. The good news is that the typical fraud patterns are well known – and each of them can be detected with a specific check.

Scam 1: The plot has already been sold

An owner sells the same plot to several buyers, often through a private sales contract (contrato privado) against a down payment. Whoever first signs the Escritura Pública before the notary and has it registered is the owner; the others only have a claim against the seller – who by then is usually nowhere to be found.

Protection: Shortly before payment, have a current register extract obtained from the Registro Unificado Nacional (RUN), which since January 2026 combines the land register and the cadastre – it shows the owner, encumbrances and restrictions on disposal. Since September 2026 the Certificado Catastro Registral Inmobiliario bundles this information with the cadastral data and also reveals overlaps with neighbouring plots. And: pay larger amounts only when the Escritura is signed, not on a private preliminary contract.

Scam 2: The seller is not actually the owner

A "caretaker", a relative or a supposed representative offers the plot. Sometimes there is a power of attorney that has been revoked, forged or is not sufficient for a sale. Properties whose owner lives abroad or has died and whose succession has not been settled are particularly vulnerable.

Protection: Compare the name in the register extract with the seller's ID. With a power of attorney (poder), have it checked whether it is notarised, current and expressly granted for the sale of this plot. In inheritance cases: has the probate procedure been completed and registered? How a purchase by power of attorney works correctly is explained in the article on buying remotely with a power of attorney.

Scam 3: State land sold as private land

Part of the rural land comes from the state agrarian reform and is subject to restrictions – or still belongs to the state. How large the damage can be is shown by a case from 2024: in December, prosecutors and police broke up a network that for years had promised settlers in the department of Presidente Hayes land from the agrarian institute INDERT that was in fact private property. Investigators spoke of transactions since 2017; three brothers from a Mennonite community alone are said to have lost 1.6 million US dollars. According to the investigation, lawyers were also involved.

Protection: Have the origin of the title traced back to its source – not just the current owner. For rural land, the INDERT question belongs in every check. What to look out for is explained in the article on INDERT land and title risks.

Scam 4: The investment model from the video

Shares in a settlement, plots in a "colony", promised returns from reforestation or farming – presented in professional videos, often with likeable expats on camera. The German Embassy expressly advises not to rely solely on presentations in online videos for land deals and investment models.

Protection: For every model, ask: what exactly am I acquiring – a registered plot with its own register number, a company share, or merely a contractual promise? Only the first is ownership in the sense of the land register. Which legal forms exist and what they achieve is covered in the article on foundations, companies and trusts.

Scam 5: The small print in the lease

Not every "plot" is sold – some are leased, and buyers build their house on them. The Spanish contracts then contain clauses under which all buildings pass to the owner without compensation. Anyone relying on the other side's verbal summary only notices at the end of the term. The mechanism and the typical wording are described in the article Leasing land in Paraguay.

Warning signs at a glance

• ⚠The price is well below comparable offers in the region.
• ⚠Time pressure: "there is another interested party", "this week only".
• ⚠A down payment is supposed to be made before the title check – in cash, to an intermediary or into a private account.
• ⚠The seller proposes "their" notary or lawyer and advises against your own check.
• ⚠There is no register number (finca/matrícula) or no cadastral number (padrón/cuenta corriente catastral) – or they are not handed over.
• ⚠You are expected to buy without having seen the plot yourself or through someone you trust.

The five checks before any payment

• 1.Site visit – yourself or through someone you trust. Compare boundaries, access and use on site with the documents.
• 2.Register extract from the RUN (Certificado Catastro Registral Inmobiliario) – current, shortly before payment.
• 3.Cadastral data – do area and location match the register and reality? If in doubt, commission a survey (mensura).
• 4.Taxes and charges – certificate from the municipality that no property tax is owed.
• 5.Independent legal review – by a lawyer or notary who works for you, including the origin of the title. The details are in the article on title verification (Estudio de Títulos).

Payment is then made when the Escritura Pública is signed before the notary – and ownership is only secure once it has been entered in the register (RUN).

And if it has already happened?

Then time matters. Secure all documents, payment receipts and messages, file a complaint with the public prosecutor (Ministerio Público) and have a Paraguayan lawyer represent you. Your embassy can usually provide lists of lawyers and translators. But do not have any illusions about how long such proceedings take – the embassy's warning applies here too.

So: better not buy in Paraguay?

Yes, buy – but check first. Foreigners have practically the same property rights in Paraguay as locals (see Can foreigners buy land in Paraguay?), purchase costs are low, and the land register system works if you use it. Most of the losses we have seen in more than 25 years follow the same pattern: money was paid before anything was checked. Reverse the order and you have already eliminated the biggest risks.

Sources and status: German Embassy Asunción – property transactions in Paraguay (in German); German Federal Foreign Office – travel and safety advice Paraguay (in German); Infobae/EFE on the land fraud network (18 Dec 2024); Poder Judicial – Ley N.º 7424 (Registro Unificado Nacional, RUN); ABC Color on RUN processing times (7 Jul 2026); ABC Color on the Certificado Catastro Registral Inmobiliario (16 Sep 2026). Status: September 2026. This article gives a general overview and does not replace legal advice in individual cases.