Buying a house on Aruba: the familiar notary process — with a kink in the tax at 250,000 florin
Buying on Aruba feels Dutch: the notary executes the deed, settles the transfer tax and handles the registration. The bill has one peculiarity: 3% transfer tax up to and including Afl. 250,000 and 6% on everything above — so the value of your house determines which half you fall into. After that, whoever is the owner on 1 January pays annual land tax.
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Written and checked by Auke on , against the sources at the bottom. Is something no longer right? Report it below and I'll fix it.
Yes, as a Dutch citizen you buy a house on Aruba the way you would at home: through the notary. The notary executes the deed, settles the transfer tax and handles the registration. Count on 5 to 9% purchase costs on top of the price.
The find on the government's page is the kink in the transfer tax: 3% up to and including Afl. 250,000 and 6% on everything above. At the price of an average home you therefore fall partly into the high rate.
The pitfall lies under the house and next to it:
- Under the house. Freehold, long lease and leased land all three occur a lot. With long lease and leased land you use someone else's land for an annual fee, the ground rent.
- Next to the house. Buying says nothing about being allowed to stay. Your admission is a separate journey with an annual renewal.
In your first year you don't buy. You rent, you discover which part of the island suits you, and only then do you decide. Why that order is fixed is in why you don't buy a house in your first year. This article is for the moment you've got that far, and then Aruba is surprisingly familiar territory.
How does the purchase run, and what is under the house?
Aruba works with the notary system you know from the Netherlands. The notary draws up the deed of transfer, executes it, settles the transfer tax and sees to the registration at the land registry. No separate tax counters beforehand as in southern Europe, no bidding rounds with their own rulebook as in Scandinavia.
The points of attention are in what you buy. Check whether it is freehold, long lease (erfpacht) or leased land (huurgrond); on Aruba all three are common. With long-lease or leased land you want to know the remaining term and the ground rent before you sign. Your notary looks into that; ask for it explicitly.
And bear in mind that buying says nothing about being allowed to stay. Your admission is a separate journey: the first five years a permit with annual renewal. That is the real difference from Curaçao.
What does buying a house on Aruba cost on top of the price?
The transfer tax is paid by you as buyer, via the notary, and the rate has a kink: 3% on the value up to and including Afl. 250,000 (about € 127,000) and 6% on everything above. The basis is the purchase price or the market value, the higher of the two.
At the prices of an average home you quickly fall partly into the high rate. Work it out beforehand: on a house of Afl. 600,000 the difference between "everything at 3%" and reality is well over ten thousand florin. On top of that come the notary's costs and, with a mortgage, the costs of the mortgage deed.
| Item | Basis | Indication |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer tax | purchase price or market value — the higher of the two | 3% up to and including Afl. 250,000, 6% on the excess |
| Notary | depending on the transaction | 0.5 to 3% |
| Estate agent | only if you engage one | on top |
| Together | 5 to 9% of the purchase price |
A worked example at Afl. 600,000: 3% on the first 250,000 is Afl. 7,500, 6% on the remaining 350,000 is Afl. 21,000. Together that is Afl. 28,500 in transfer tax, where "everything at 3%" would have come to Afl. 18,000. The cost indication for Aruba works with the same band of 5 to 9%.
What do I pay every year after that?
Whoever is the owner of a house or land on Aruba on 1 January pays land tax for that whole year, even if you sell during the year. The rate is 0.4% of the taxable value. For your own home that is the open-market value (what the house would fetch in a sale), which is set for a period of five years.
You pay the assessment from Departamento di Impuesto, the Aruban tax department, in four equal instalments, on 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December.
If no assessment arrives after the purchase, your house is not yet registered. Report it yourself with the survey certificate, site plan and cadastral number. Whoever deliberately fails to do so risks a fine of up to 100% of the assessment.
With long lease the annual ground rent comes on top, payable within ten days of the date of the assessment. According to the government a mortgage runs through the commercial banks, the FCCA, the pension fund APFA or the Volkskredietbank. Put it in your annual budget, and for the complete picture see working and earning on Aruba and your first weeks on Aruba.
What does the rental year teach you first?
Long-term rent on Aruba runs roughly from one thousand to three thousand dollars a month. The first months also require furnished accommodation until the container arrives, a deposit, and furnishing on an import island.
That rental year is not money lost. It is the period in which you learn which part of the island suits you. And it is the period in which your DIMAS permit (from the Aruban immigration service) and your Censo registration (in the population register) come through: the two things a notary doesn't arrange for you.
In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Aruba.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change. When in doubt, go by the source, not this article.
- Government of Aruba — the transfer tax (3% up to and including Afl. 250,000, 6% on the excess) — gobierno.aw
- Departamento di Impuesto — the land tax (national ordinance from 2019) — impuesto.aw
- Government of Aruba — buying or selling a home: notary, transfer tax and mortgage providers — gobierno.aw
- Departamento di Impuesto — land tax: owner on 1 January, 0.4%, four quarterly instalments and the ground rent — impuesto.aw
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