Several people have contacted us about buying land with the plan of building a house and other support structures. If you’re considering a land purchase, I strongly suggest you engage an Architect before making the purchase. Also, consider who will be you’re Escribano (Notary) on the front end. Here are a couple of things to consider.
A designer is a designer, however in Uruguay, the architect is often the General Contractor. This is not unheard of in North America, but it’s not common. In the US for instance, such as enterprise is a Design Build company. If you follow the norm and hire an Architect as the Design Build firm, the relationship and the savvy of the company becomes critical. Also, a good designer can answer zoning/use issues. I suggest you hook up with a good Architect BEFORE you buy land, for this and other reasons. Choose well.
The other profession that’s completely different here is the Notary, or Escribano. The Notary in Uruguay is a highly trained pro who performs dozens of functions, the most important of which may be Title Searches. For our European readers, this is not a radical departure from their norm. Also consider this: The Notary represents you, the buyer in a transaction. Do not, I repeat, do not use a realtor’s Escribano unless you trust them completely. You do not want a Notary that’s in cahoots with shady agent and there are plenty of those on the Coast!
If you’re going to live, spend a lot time, or do business here, make friends with a reliable Escribano!
UpDate!
We’ve checked with our contacts in the development business. The arrangement of the Architect/General Contractor is common (80 - 90%) with residential and light commercial, but is NOT typical with large projects. In Uruguay, major projects are addressed as they are most places in the world: design and construction are different functions.
Entries (RSS)