Buying an apartment in Lima without going to Peru

Yes, it is possible, and it is what a good share of our clients do. Peruvian law does not prevent it, a notarised power of attorney allows a deed to be signed in your name, and most documentary checks can be run just as well from Geneva as from Lima.

What distance changes is therefore not legal feasibility. It is the quality of the information. A well-assembled file will tell you almost everything about an apartment's legal situation. It will tell you almost nothing about the street noise at 7 p.m. on a Friday. This guide separates those two categories, and sets out who should do what.

What can seriously be verified from a distance

The legal situation of the property. SUNARP records fall under registry publicity: a third party can request a property's registry entry, precisely in order to find out who the registered owner is and what charges affect it. The core document is the certificado literal de partida, more commonly called the copia literal: owner, history of transfers, charges and encumbrances. The request is made online, through an account on the registry publicity platform (SPRL) and an online payment, with delivery by email within a maximum of three working days. Many European buyers leave this to their lawyer or representative in Lima, which avoids payment-method friction.

One point not to transpose from Europe: in Peru, ownership of real property transfers by the mere agreement of the parties (article 949 of the Civil Code). Registration is not what makes you the owner; it is what makes your right enforceable against third parties and fixes your priority. This mechanism is set out in our guide on the pitfalls of buying property in Lima.

The property on paper. Plans, floor areas, layout, separately registered parking or storage, and above all the reglamento interno of the condominium where it is registered: this is what says whether short-term letting is allowed in the building. These documents can be requested and read from Europe.

The contract. Price, payment schedule, arras, penalties, termination clauses: none of this requires being in Lima, but all of it requires review by a professional independent of the seller and the agency.

The urban setting, in part. Mapping, satellite views and street imagery give a reasonable first reading of distances, shops, schools and transport lines. Check the date of the images: in Lima, an empty lot from 2022 may be a fifteen-storey tower today.

Three situations do not call for the same checks. For an older apartment, everything is verifiable on paper and the residual risk is physical. For a newly completed home, you must make sure the declaratoria de fábrica and the independización are registered, failing which the unit does not yet have its own registry entry. For an off-plan purchase, there is nothing to visit: the risk shifts to the developer and the contract, a subject covered in our guide on buying off-plan in Lima.

What a video shows badly

This is the part most often underestimated. An honest video, filmed in good faith, still misses several realities.

Noise. A viewing filmed at 11 a.m. says nothing about traffic at 6 p.m., bars on a Friday evening, a school emptying at 1 p.m., a building site next door or a generator on the roof. In Lima, noise varies sharply from one hour to the next and from one street to another within the same district.

What faces you. A wide-angle lens widens everything. What has to be measured is not the impression of space, but the real distance to the building opposite, the presence of directly facing windows, the height of neighbouring buildings and, where the information exists, what could be built on adjacent plots.

Light. A video filmed at the best moment of the day gives a systematically favourable impression. Ask for the exact orientation and for images at two different times.

Common areas. Lobby, lifts, stairs, car park, roof, plant rooms. Their condition often says more about how the building is managed than the apartment itself.

Damp and smells. Practically impossible to assess on screen: ventilation, rising damp, a restaurant kitchen at street level, a poorly ventilated garage, drains.

The feel of the street. An address can look impeccable on a map and be very different at the end of the day.

The conclusion fits in one sentence: a good remote viewing looks for defects, it does not produce attractive images.

What requires someone on the ground

A trusted person in Lima can establish facts: visit in person, film without editing, look out of every window, walk the common areas, listen to the street at different hours, speak with the caretaker or the building administration where appropriate, and check on delivery that the unit matches what was agreed.

Establishing facts is not carrying out a survey. A doubt about the structure, the electrical installation, waterproofing or build quality is a matter for an architect or a civil engineer: in Peru these professionals must be registered and in good standing with the Colegio de Arquitectos del Perú or the Colegio de Ingenieros del Perú, whose registers can be consulted publicly. Likewise, the legal analysis of the file is a lawyer's role, and drafting the deed the notary's.

Where that trusted person is a relative living in Peru, it is worth setting out who does what explicitly: our guide on buying an apartment in Peru with family on the ground sets out what a relative naturally covers well and what calls for something other than presence.

Legal and contractual safeguards

The power of attorney

A buyer who does not travel has the deed signed by a representative holding a poder. Two routes exist.

The first is to grant the power before a Peruvian consulate. Peruvian consuls exercise notarial functions and can receive an escritura pública intended to have effect in Peru, at the request of a Peruvian or foreign citizen, the latter presenting the passport of their country of origin. Consulates state expressly that the power may cover the purchase and sale of real property as well as the registration of title at the public registers. The procedure is published by the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: send the draft power to the consulate, book an appointment, sign the deed before the consular officer, then pay the registration fees. The Peruvian consulate in Geneva and the consular section in Bern are among the posts connected to the electronic transmission of deeds to SUNARP, which shortens the timeline appreciably; posts are connected progressively, so it is worth confirming the state of the service at the time.

The second is to sign before a notary in your country of residence. The document must then be apostilled (Switzerland and Peru are both parties to the Hague Convention) and drawn up in Spanish or translated by a sworn public translator. One practical difference is worth knowing: where the power is consular, only the person designated by the consul may file it at the registry; where it comes from a foreign notary, anyone may present it.

In both cases the power is registered in SUNARP's register of mandates and powers, which then allows a certificate to be obtained confirming that it is still in force, a document the notary will require.

Two habits are worth adopting: draft a limited and precise power listing the authorised acts rather than a general one, and set its duration and how it can be revoked.

Payments

At a distance, the question is not only how much, but to whom, when and on what contractual basis. Before each payment, three things must be in writing: the exact recipient, the event that triggers the payment, and what happens if that event does not occur.

Peruvian law on the use of formal payment channels also requires, above certain thresholds and with a rule of its own for real rights over immovable property, the use of a payment method within the financial system: transfer, deposit into an account, non-negotiable cheque. The notary records in the deed the method used. In practice, a property purchase in Peru is not settled in cash and the flow of funds must be traceable end to end. The transfer itself is covered in our guide on sending funds from Switzerland to Peru.

Framing the risks in the contract

Peruvian law knows the condición suspensiva: an effect of the contract may be made subject to a future and uncertain event. The vocabulary is not to be transposed mechanically from Swiss or French law, but the principle exists and is worked out with a local lawyer. Depending on the case, the transaction can be made conditional on a satisfactory registry position, the delivery of specified documents, obtaining financing, or conforming delivery of a new-build unit. How the arras are characterised deserves the same attention: it determines what becomes of the sum paid if one party withdraws.

Between signature and final registration, the bloqueo registral finally allows priority to be reserved at the registry for sixty working days. Raise it with the notary.

The role of the notary and of SUNARP

The Peruvian notario gives public faith to the deed, verifies the identity of the parties, checks the means of payment and files the title with the registry. That intervention is indispensable, but it does not make the notary your adviser: conducting your due diligence and negotiating your clauses is your lawyer's role. Confusing the two is one of the most frequent misunderstandings among European buyers.

Registration at SUNARP comes next. Until it is effective, your right exists between you and the seller, but your protection against third parties remains incomplete. Following the file through to registration is an integral part of a remote purchase.

Buying new from a distance: more legible, not less risky

A new project looks simpler to handle from afar: standardised plans, a brochure, a standard contract, a payment schedule. But the apartment does not exist yet, and a 3D rendering is not a contractual promise: what binds are the plans, the memoria descriptiva de acabados and the delivery clauses.

Checking a developer from Europe is, by contrast, largely feasible. Its tax number (RUC) and activity status can be consulted free of charge on the SUNAT website. Its company record and the registry entry for the land can be consulted at SUNARP. INDECOPI sanctions are public and free on the Mira a quién le compras platform, which lists proceedings since 2011, each sanction remaining published for four years. The building permit is issued by the district municipality and must be produced. Some elements remain less verifiable: the future view, how the neighbourhood evolves and whether deadlines are actually met. Those are framed by the contract, not by trust.

Summary table

Item	Verifiable remotely?	Is being there useful?
Registered owner, charges and encumbrances	Yes	Not necessary
Condominium internal rules	Yes, where registered	Not necessary
Plans, floor areas, layout	Yes	Useful if in doubt
Price, contract, payment schedule	Yes	Not necessary
Developer's standing (new project)	Yes, largely	Not necessary
Condition of common areas	Partly	Yes
Real noise levels by time of day	Partly	Yes
Outlook and natural light	Partly	Yes
Damp, ventilation, smells	Very difficult	Yes
Feel of the street	Partly	Yes
Structure and build quality	No	Qualified architect or engineer
Legal analysis of the file	Yes, remotely	Peruvian lawyer, no travel required

When a trip still has value

Coming is not an obligation, and we will not present it as one. Some situations nonetheless make it reasonable:

• the purchase represents a significant share of your assets;
• you are torn between several districts and no data settles it;
• you are particularly sensitive to noise or light;
• the property is old or unusual, with defects that are hard to frame from a distance;
• you have no reliable person on the ground.

A useful distinction: a standardised rental investment, in a recent building in a well-documented district, can reasonably be handled remotely if the checks have been carried out. A future personal home turns on largely subjective criteria: the light in the living room in late afternoon, the daily commute, the neighbours. For someone who genuinely intends to live there, a stay before buying has a value nothing replaces.

Conclusion

Buying an apartment in Lima from Switzerland or Europe is technically possible and legally framed. The real issue is not the number of kilometres, but the quality of the information gathered, the rigour of the checks and the reliability of the people on the ground.

A sound remote purchase process seeks to reduce what the buyer cannot see, rather than simply showing them what they want to see.

Several years later, the exit is prepared with the same method but in a different order: we have set it out in our guide to selling an apartment in Lima from Switzerland or Europe.