After several years of rumors that we had no title and that we would never get a title for our property, I would like to go into more detail about our title today.
How did the procedure work?
We never doubted it ourselves and now actually have the title to our property in El Paraiso Verde in our own hands. Rumors usually don’t last long and then the truth comes out.
In our case, unfortunately, it took longer for us to show the titles and we could have been told so many times that the titles were coming and the process was ongoing. It’s difficult with some people, but how did it actually work out for us?
When did we buy our property?
We found out about El Paraiso Verde online at the end of 2017 and contacted them. After two Skype calls, we signed up for an information week in March 2018 and bought a property at the same time.
We had never been to Paraguay before and we didn’t choose our property ourselves. It was allocated to us and at the time there were these new Anastacia Circle plots of 2500 square meters each. We simply bought one of these plots, but we could have changed plots on site.
When we were there for the information week, we were unfortunately unable to view our property as there was no road access to it. All the roads in the settlement area had to be built first. We still had the option of changing the plot at any time.
We had transferred the amount in advance and there was no appointment with the notary. Originally, we would have only received rights of use to our property and that was exactly how it was intended at the time. That was fine for us because we already had a garden parcel with usage rights in Germany and it was even more expensive.
Do we only have rights of use now?
As already written, this was the original plan and it was also in our first purchase contract. However, some people complained that El Paraiso Verde would not give us any titles for the properties and that we would therefore never own anything.
So at some point, the decision was made to divide up the entire settlement area and provide titles. However, this was an incredibly time-consuming process.
We found out about this new possibility in Germany. There was a newsletter from El Paraiso Verde and from then on there was also a new purchase agreement with the promise to transfer the title as soon as they were available.
When we finally emigrated in November 2019, we still hadn’t seen our property. However, we were able to visit it now because there was a road leading to it. Wow, a big green field 😅
At that time, there were no finished houses in the settlement area, only two opposite our property were under construction. We thought to ourselves that we could certainly create our own green paradise on any property here.
The size was perfect for us anyway and we certainly couldn’t say too much about the location yet, as it would only become clear in the future how El Paraiso Verde would develop with its settlers and where the next houses would be built.
So we went ahead with it. We wanted to keep this property and only then did we go to the notary and sign the new purchase contract, which included the commitment to transfer the title.
This was also fine for us, because we were confident that everything would be in order. Unfortunately, there were also many people who kept saying that this paper was not worth anything. Nevertheless, we started to build our house.
The division of the settlement area
There are currently around 1711 titles in El Paraiso Verde and many intermediate steps were necessary to get there in the first place. I’ll try to retell this from the past. Maybe I’ll find some older screenshots at some point and post them here.
At the time we signed the notarized purchase contract, the settlement area was still divided into three individually titled properties.
But that’s not all, because these three properties belong to different municipalities. One part belongs to Maciel and another part to Caazap谩. The next step was to combine these three individual properties into one large property.
That alone took a very long time. The decision to merge the three properties into one was published on October 11, 2019, following a hearing on December 27, 2018 and a decision on December 28, 2018.
In the meantime, however, El Paraiso Verde has been able to work on its own plans, at least internally. There has been a settlement plan with the respective plots of land since the start of the project. This was continuously revised and optimized. Plots were merged or new settlements were planned and thus larger plots were divided into smaller plots, etc.
At some point after the pandemic, the necessary intermediate step was taken. The three individual properties with their respective padr贸n numbers were now merged into one large property with its own new padr贸n number.
I’ll have to check if I can still find pictures of this somewhere. I don’t want to drag this out too long. In any case, the large property was then divided again into two separate properties and there were again new padr贸n numbers.
These are the sections A and B known today, one of them is the settlement area and the other is outside the settlement area with the pastures and Pira Tava is also part of it.
In July 2023, the Municipal Council of Maciel approved the procedure (administrative process) for the land registration of all settlers. However, the settlement area no longer has a Padr贸n number. Why is that?
What is the difference between Cuentas Rurales and Cuentas Corrientes?
At this point, I would like to go into a little more detail about how the Catastro works in Paraguay and how the respective plots of land in the country are divided up. At least as I understand it, because I have been following this process a little more closely over the last two years.
Fundamentally, El Paraiso Verde is an urban development and therefore the settlement area has a current account (Cuentas Corrientes) with the national cadastre (Catastro) and not a Padr贸n number like the rural accounts (Cuentas Rurales).
This is the case for every city in Paraguay. You can recognize this by the special numbering of the properties and in the map at Catastro the properties of the cities have a different color.
The simple rural plots only have a Padr贸n number and are always shown in green on the Catastro map.
How is the Cuentas Corrientes numbered?
There are significantly more options here than with the rural accounts, which only have a Padr贸n number and can be accessed via the Departamento and Distrito. The Cuentas Corrientes can also be accessed via the Departamento and Distrito, but have a further subdivision to access a specific property. Instead of the Padr贸n number, there is Zona, Manzana, Lote, Piso/Nivel and Departamento/Salon.
As can be seen publicly on the Map of Catastro, the settlement area of El Paraiso Verde has the number 22-54-2 and the plot next to it with the pastures has the number 1246.
The entire settlement area therefore always has Zona 22, Manzana 54 and Lote 2. Piso/Nivel remains at 00 and the respective plots (sub-accounts) of the settlers can be called up with the corresponding number via Departamento/Salon.
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After we applied to the notary for our title and signed for the transfer together with Dr. Erwin Annau, both of our names were also registered with Catastro for our property.
The size of the property can also be seen and corresponds to the survey and the purchase contract.
It can also be seen that our property was updated/created at Catastro on 05.12.2023. Before that, it was not possible to transfer a title at all.
These are just the hurdles that have to be overcome and now everything is set up correctly and further titles are continuously being transferred. This is an incredibly big milestone that El Paraiso Verde has reached in 2024.
Delivery of the title at the notary’s office
After we had signed our papers at the notary, it took another two months or so for the first titles to be issued. Sometime afterwards, I went back to Villarrica with Nicole and we picked up our titles there.
Her title was also finished and we took another settler’s title with us and surprised him. Today, by the way, three more finished titles were picked up for and by settlers and so it goes on one after the other until everyone can hold their own title in their hands.
To come back to the first question. Yes, we have a title and the property is ours. The rumors have once again vanished into thin air.
The title wasn’t important to us at all, but now we’re still happy that we have it and everything is settled. It was a bit unpleasant for us that this pressure was built up with the titles, because everything supposedly took so long and the rumor mill naturally boiled over again.
Is there a difference in the titles?
The question came up somewhere as to whether our titles are real at all or whether we have restricted titles, perhaps using paper that is too thin or other restrictions?
I can say that I just showed our title to the public prosecutor’s office and if anyone believes that it is not real, they should clarify this elsewhere but please leave us in peace 😂
There are of course differences in the various titles. Some have a rural property somewhere in Paraguay with a Padr贸n number and no common areas. This is perhaps the easiest way to get a title here in Paraguay.
Here we have an urban land that belongs to a community of owners and the ownership must be regulated according to the respective private property and the remaining communal areas on the entire property of the settlement area.
This is made possible by the so-called horizontal property (Propiedad Horizontal), which refers to a set of rules that regulate the division and organization of different properties as a result of the separation of a common property.
Horizontal property itself is not a specific piece of land, but a system that regulates the way in which properties are divided and the relationship between the owners of the private property and the common property separated from a piece of land. Horizontal ownership enables the organization of co-owners and the maintenance of common property. Source
So there is a suitable title for every property, as prescribed by Paraguayan law. You just have to deal with it a bit, which of course takes time, but here you have at least received a small summary from me.
You can watch a YouTube video from me here. I flew over El Paraiso Verde with my drone and there are some nice pictures from a bird’s eye view of the settlement area in April 2024.
Current status of the titles in El Paraiso Verde
Since July 1, 2024, anyone who buys a titled property in El Paraiso Verde will receive the title without a waiting period. It is no longer necessary to enter the country or attend an information week to purchase a property and get a title. You can buy a property without coming to El Paraiso Verde.
This gives everyone who is looking for a plan B NOW in the event of an international crisis the opportunity to travel to a safe place and live there if the worst comes to the worst.
We have already been through the experiences that almost EVERY emigrant anywhere in the world has to go through. The founders Dr. Erwin and Sylvia Annau are here and will build your plan B so that you have a place to live when your current home is no longer worth living in.
This solution became necessary because such a crisis can come much faster than applicants can be turned into settlers via the information week.
However, we also love living in El Paraiso Verde regardless of this and have been glad to have built our own green paradise here since November 2019. Take a look at my other blog posts here, for example how we started building our house in El Paraiso Verde.
You can contact a consultant via the El Paraiso Verde website!
Best regards Sebastian