Australians in South America: Home Loans Back Home From Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay
Yes. Australian citizens and permanent residents living anywhere in South America can buy and refinance Australian residential property, and the loan is arranged from where you are: no FIRB step for a citizen, identification certified at the Australian post in your country, contracts reviewed by an Australian conveyancer, settlement through PEXA. What the continent adds is a set of rules that differ country by country. None of the six currencies sits on any published lender list, so a salary paid in reais, pesos, soles or Colombian pesos is counted at 70 per cent of gross rather than 80, while the US dollar packages common in mining and multinationals keep the 80 per cent tier. Australia has a tax treaty with Argentina and Chile, is negotiating one with Brazil and Colombia, and has none with Peru or Uruguay. Argentina and Colombia levy wealth taxes that reach an Australian property. Brazil taxes money on the way out. This page sets out each rule with the date it was read, so the file is built in the right order: currency, treaty, residency, transfer, then the search.
Can you get an Australian home loan while living in South America?
Yes. An Australian citizen in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Bogotá, Lima or Montevideo is not a foreign person under Australia’s foreign investment rules, so no FIRB application is made and no foreign purchaser surcharge applies, however long the posting has run. A permanent resident keeps the same position while ordinarily resident in Australia. The lenders that accept overseas residents take the salary in the currency it is paid, convert it, shade it for that currency, and test it against Australian tax rates and Australian living costs. The whole file runs on video, email and the Australian post in your country.
The Australian community in South America is real but uncounted. No DFAT country brief, Smartraveller page or embassy site publishes a resident figure for any of the six countries, and we do not invent one. What the official record does show is the depth of the ties the other way: Australia’s 2021 Census counted 46,720 residents born in Brazil, 40,110 born in Colombia, 29,860 born in Chile, 17,977 born in Argentina, 13,000 born in Peru and 10,230 born in Uruguay, and DFAT reports 34,224 Colombian and 23,937 Brazilian students in Australia in 2024. Those numbers explain the files we actually see: an Australian married to a Colombian in Bogotá, a Chilean-born Australian citizen back in Santiago for a mining contract, a Brazilian-Australian couple in São Paulo buying the Melbourne apartment they will retire to.
What unites the files is that the loan is the easy part and the local layer is the work. Six tax systems, six currencies, two wealth taxes, one exchange tax and four different definitions of a resident sit between a South American payslip and an Australian settlement. The rest of this page takes them in the order a lender meets them.
Six currencies, none on a lender list: what 70 per cent means and why US dollar packages change it
Australian lenders sort foreign currencies into tiers. Macquarie publishes nine accepted currencies, the pound, the euro, the Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, US and Canadian dollars, the yen and the Swiss franc. At least one major bank owned lender runs a longer preferred list that adds the UAE dirham, the Saudi riyal, the Indian rupee, the Indonesian rupiah and the Vietnamese dong, counted at 80 per cent of gross income, and takes anything outside it at 70 per cent under a credit delegation. The Brazilian real, the Argentine peso, the Chilean peso, the Colombian peso, the Peruvian sol and the Uruguayan peso are on neither list. A salary paid in any of them is an other-currency file: accepted, confirmed on each application, and counted at 70 per cent of the net figure.
Deposit and LVR across the six currencies. None of the six sits on the list one major bank publishes for its broker channel: an unlisted currency is taken case by case with at least 30 per cent deducted from the gross salary, and the 95 per cent tier, reserved for an Australian citizen paid in Australian dollars or one of seven listed currencies, does not apply. A 20 per cent deposit plus costs is the planning number from São Paulo to Montevideo, the US dollar component of a mining or corporate package is read on the listed tier at 80 per cent of gross with the 95 per cent ceiling available to a citizen, and a permanent resident living overseas stops at 80 per cent on any currency.
The ten points are real money. Take a São Paulo salary of BRL 30,000 a month, BRL 360,000 a year. At the Banco Central do Brasil PTAX rate of 5.1149 reais per US dollar on 10 September 2026 and the Reserve Bank’s 0.7172 US dollars per Australian dollar on 11 September, one Australian dollar buys about 3.67 reais, so the salary is about AUD 98,000 a year. Counted at 70 per cent it enters the assessment at about AUD 68,700; the same salary paid in a listed currency would enter at about AUD 78,500. That gap of close to AUD 10,000 of assessable income, before the lender applies Australian tax rates and living costs, is the difference between two price brackets in most Australian suburbs.
The exception matters more here than anywhere else in our expat cluster. A large share of Australians in South America work for mining houses, engineering firms and multinationals that pay in US dollars, in full or in part, and the US dollar is on every published list at 80 per cent. A Santiago file with a US dollar base and a peso allowance is read as two incomes, the dollar portion on the preferred tier and the peso portion at 70 per cent, each with its own contract and its own statements. The lender that reads a split package well moves the budget by six figures on an identical set of payslips, which is why the first question on every South American file is which currency lands in which account, not which country the office is in.
One more mechanical point. The Reserve Bank of Australia publishes no exchange rate for any of the six currencies in its daily table, so every conversion on this page, and every conversion a lender makes, runs through the US dollar: the central bank’s own rate against the dollar, then the Australian dollar against the dollar. Uruguay is the exception; the Banco Central del Uruguay quotes the Australian dollar directly, at 28.82 pesos on 10 September 2026.
South America files are decided on the currency split, then the treaty.
A former banker reads which part of your package is in dollars and which in pesos or reais, runs it through the lenders that actually accept overseas residents, and puts the transfer, the declarations and the pre-approval in the right sequence. Nothing touches your credit file until you choose to apply.
Book a South America call with a former bankerRather message from South America than book a call? WhatsApp Ahmed from where you are, whichever currency you are paid in. It is his own mobile, no call centre, and the first chat is free.
The treaty map: Argentina and Chile have one, Brazil and Colombia are negotiating, Peru and Uruguay have none
Treasury’s income tax treaty table, last updated 24 March 2026, lists two South American treaties in force: Argentina, signed 29 August 1999 and in force from 30 December 1999, and Chile, signed 10 March 2010 and in force from 8 February 2013, the Chilean one modified by the Multilateral Instrument from 1 March 2021. Brazil and Colombia are on the negotiation list: Treasury announced Australia’s first tax treaty negotiation with Brazil on 13 December 2023 and consulted on it in March and April 2024, and announced planned negotiations with Colombia on 16 November 2022. Neither has produced a signed treaty as at the March 2026 table. Peru and Uruguay have no treaty and no announced negotiation; Uruguay has a tax information exchange agreement with Australia, signed 10 December 2012 and in force from 1 July 2014.
Why this matters for a home loan is not the loan itself, which is assessed on Australian tax rates whatever your country charges, but the property after settlement. An Australian investment property earns Australian rent and, one day, an Australian capital gain. Both are taxed in Australia first. In a treaty country, the treaty decides how the second country credits that tax and which of the two has the first claim; in a non-treaty country, the domestic law of the place you live decides, and a credit for Australian tax is only available if that law grants one. Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay each answer that question differently, and the sections below give the statutory wording rather than a summary.
The practical reading: an Australian in Santiago or Buenos Aires with an Australian rental property is in the same broad position as one in London or Singapore, a treaty and a credit mechanism. An Australian in São Paulo, Bogotá, Lima or Montevideo owns the same property inside a system with no treaty, which does not stop the purchase but does mean the local adviser is consulted before exchange, not after the first Australian rent lands.
Who counts as a tax resident where: 184 days, 183 days, twelve months and a three year window
Every country on this page taxes its residents on worldwide income, so residency decides whether the Australian rent and the eventual gain enter a South American return at all. The tests differ. Brazil makes you resident on the day you arrive on a permanent visa or a temporary visa with an employment contract, and otherwise on the day you complete 184 days of presence, consecutive or not, within twelve months. Argentina makes a foreigner resident on obtaining permanent residence or after twelve months in the country on temporary authorisations. Chile counts more than 183 days in any twelve month period. Colombia counts more than 183 days in any 365 day period, including the days of entry and exit, and treats a stay that straddles two tax years as residency from the second. Peru counts more than 183 days in any twelve months, and the change of status takes effect from the following tax year. Uruguay counts more than 183 days in the calendar year, or the centre of your vital or economic interests being there.
Three of the six carry a rule that changes the answer for an Australian arriving for a contract. Chile taxes a foreigner who takes up domicile or residence only on Chilean source income for the first three years from entry, extendable by the regional director in qualified cases, and only after that window on worldwide income; the Servicio de Impuestos Internos restated the rule in its Circular 63 of 25 November 2021 and again in a FAQ updated 8 April 2026. Uruguay lets a person who becomes a tax resident from 1 January 2026 opt to pay the non-resident income tax, which reaches Uruguayan source income only, for the year of arrival and the ten following years, under Ley 20.446 of 16 December 2025. Peru fixes your status at the start of each tax year, so a mid year arrival is non-domiciled for the rest of that year and taxed at a flat 30 per cent on Peruvian employment income, then domiciled from 1 January.
Leaving matters as much as arriving in Brazil. The Receita Federal treats a person who leaves without filing the exit communication, the Comunicação de Saída Definitiva, as still resident for the first twelve consecutive months of absence. The communication is due between the departure date and the last day of February of the following year, the exit declaration itself is filed the year after departure on the annual return timetable, and any tax it shows is paid in one instalment by the filing date. From the date you become non-resident, Brazilian employment income paid to you is subject to withholding at 25 per cent, and other Brazilian source income at 15 per cent, under articles 746 and 744 of the 2018 income tax regulation. An Australian who did the Brazil posting and is now home with a São Paulo rental of their own meets that rule in reverse, and the file is cleaner for knowing it.
The two wealth taxes that reach an Australian property: Argentina and Colombia
Australia levies no wealth tax, so most expats never think about one. Two countries on this page do, and both reach real estate located abroad. Argentina’s Impuesto sobre los Bienes Personales taxes a resident on assets situated in Argentina and abroad, valuing foreign real estate at its market value abroad on 31 December each year. For the 2025 period ARCA sets the exempt minimum at ARS 384,728,044.57 and the general scale at 0.50 per cent, 0.75 per cent and 1.00 per cent on the excess; the law reduces the scale to 0.50 and 0.75 per cent for 2026 and to a flat 0.25 per cent from 2027. Colombia’s impuesto al patrimonio applies to a resident individual’s net worth held inside and outside Colombia when it is at least 72,000 UVT on 1 January; with the 2026 UVT fixed at COP 52,374 that is COP 3.77 billion, about AUD 1.7 million at the 11 September 2026 rates, taxed at 0.5 per cent from 72,000 UVT, 1.0 per cent from 122,000 UVT and 1.5 per cent above 239,000 UVT, the top rate temporary to 2026 and 1.0 per cent from 2027.
The detail that catches Australian owners is the exclusion. Colombia excludes the first 12,000 UVT of the home you actually live in; an investment property in Australia gets no exclusion. Argentina allows a credit for similar wealth taxes paid abroad; Australia has none to credit. So an Australian resident of Buenos Aires or Bogotá who buys in Australia is adding an asset to a wealth tax base that Australia does nothing to offset, and the right question for the local adviser is the size of the base after the purchase, not whether the purchase is allowed. On the Australian side, an investment property on which Bienes Personales has been paid is still assessed by an Australian lender on rent and shaded salary; the wealth tax is a cash flow item in the local file, not a lending policy.
Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay levy no wealth tax that reaches an Australian property on the pages we read. Brazil’s Lei 14.754 of 2023 does tax a resident’s foreign financial investments at a flat 15 per cent in the annual return, and leaves gains on foreign real estate under the general capital gains rules, so a Brazilian resident’s Australian property is in the return on sale rather than every year. Colombia taxes a resident’s occasional gain on an asset held two years or more at 15 per cent. Chile brings foreign income into the base on a received basis once the three year window closes. Uruguay’s statute, on its wording, lists only capital yields from non-resident entities among the foreign source items it taxes, which leaves rent from and gains on real estate located abroad outside the base; take that from a Uruguayan adviser rather than from us.
Getting the deposit out: IOF in Brazil, the 2025 opening in Argentina, reporting in Chile and Colombia, freedom in Peru
The deposit is the step that decides the timeline. Brazil taxes the transfer: the compiled text of Decreto 6.306, as it read on 11 September 2026, sets IOF on a personal transfer abroad at 3.5 per cent, at 1.10 per cent where the transfer is for investment, and 0.38 per cent on money coming in; the 2025 wording was suspended and restored by a legislative decree and is before the Supreme Court in ADC 96, so the rate your bank applies on the day is the one to confirm in writing before the contract. Argentina opened the door on 14 April 2025: under BCRA Comunicación A 8226, a resident individual can buy foreign currency without prior central bank approval and have it credited to a foreign currency account at a local bank or to their own account abroad, with cash purchases capped at the equivalent of USD 100 a month and the bank required to hold evidence that the client’s income or assets are consistent with the saving. Chile has applied no exchange restrictions since 19 April 2001; operations of USD 10,000 or more are reported to the Banco Central, and payments for assets held abroad go through the formal exchange market, which means a bank. Colombia channels a resident’s investment abroad through an exchange market intermediary, and the electronic exchange declaration lodged with that transfer doubles as the registration with the Banco de la República. Peru’s constitution guarantees free holding and disposal of foreign currency, and its central bank publishes the decrees that make the exchange rate a market price.
What this means in sequence. A Brazilian deposit is booked with the IOF cost modelled and the bank’s classification of the transfer, personal or investment, agreed before the Australian contract is signed, because the difference between the two rates on a AUD 200,000 deposit is real money and the classification is the bank’s call. An Argentine deposit is now a matter of documentation rather than permission: three months of statements showing the pesos, the purchase of dollars, and the credit to the Australian account, with the salary evidence the bank already holds. A Chilean or Colombian deposit is a reporting exercise the bank runs for you, provided the purpose is stated correctly at the first transfer. A Peruvian deposit is a plain international transfer. Uruguay publishes no statement on exchange controls that we could read, so ask the remitting bank in writing.
Every lender then wants the same thing: the trail. Statements for every account the money has passed through, in every currency, with the salary landing, the conversion and the transfer visible on paper. Files from this continent stall on a missing statement far more often than on a credit decision, and the two countries with the most paperwork, Brazil and Colombia, are the two where doing it in the pre-approval week rather than the contract week saves a settlement date.
The mining corridor, and why so many of these files are paid in US dollars
DFAT describes a growing Australian presence in the Argentine mining sector and lists mining first among Australia’s areas of cooperation with Peru. Austrade’s 2026 report on Australian mining equipment, technology and services companies in the region records that Chile accounts for 24 per cent of global copper production and is the world’s second largest lithium producer, that the Antofagasta region alone produces 54 per cent of Chile’s copper and all of its lithium, and that Australian companies took delegations to Exponor 2026 in Antofagasta in June and to Peru around the World Mining Congress the same month. DFAT’s 2025 investment figures put Australian investment stocks at AUD 13.8 billion in Brazil, AUD 7.3 billion in Chile, AUD 2.2 billion in Argentina, AUD 2.1 billion in Peru, AUD 1.2 billion in Colombia and AUD 0.7 billion in Uruguay.
That corridor produces a particular expat: an engineer, geologist, project manager or finance lead on a rotation or a residential contract, often paid wholly or partly in US dollars by an employer with an Australian or North American parent, with housing and flights on top. For an Australian lender that is the strongest file the continent sends: a listed currency at 80 per cent, an employer it can verify, an English language contract, and allowances that select lenders will count. The same person’s peso or real component, if there is one, is read at 70 per cent alongside it, and the shape of the package rather than the postcode sets the budget.
The corridor also explains why the Santiago guide exists on its own. Chile is the country in the region where the Australian mining presence is deepest and the treaty, the free exchange market and the three year window line up, so a Santiago file is usually the simplest of the six to run; it has its own page, buying property in Australia from Santiago and Chile, with the peso maths and the Antofagasta and Valparaíso notes. This page carries the other five and the rules they share.
FIRB from South America, and the partner on the title
Citizenship, not address, decides the foreign investment question. An Australian citizen who has lived in Bogotá for a decade buys residential property at home with no application to the Foreign Investment Review Board, no fee and no state surcharge. A permanent resident holds the same position while ordinarily resident in Australia, which a long South American posting can unsettle, so the status is confirmed before signing. A partner who is a Brazilian, Argentine, Chilean, Colombian, Peruvian or Uruguayan citizen without Australian residency is a foreign person for their share of the title, which means an application, the fee scale and the established dwelling limits that run to 30 June 2029, all set out at foreigninvestment.gov.au.
The partner question comes up more often on this continent than on any other in our cluster, because the community ties run through marriage: the Census counts above are the parents, siblings and spouses of the people who write to us from São Paulo and Bogotá. The clean structures are known. Title in the citizen’s name alone, with the partner’s income on the loan where the lender allows it, avoids the application entirely; joint title with a foreign person triggers it for that share and, for an established dwelling, may not be available at all until the limits lapse. Which structure suits a couple is a conversation with a former banker and a conveyancer before the offer, not a discovery at exchange.
The South America file, and what lenders ask for
The standard expat set applies: three to six months of payslips, the employment contract, bank statements showing the salary landing in the account it is paid to, and certified identification. The continent adds four items. NAATI accredited translations of anything issued in Portuguese or Spanish, ordered before the pre-approval because they gate everything after it. A statement of which currency each part of the package is paid in and where it lands, because that sets the tier. The deposit trail described above, in the form the local exchange rules produce. And, for Argentina and Colombia, a note of the wealth tax position after the purchase, which the lender does not assess but the local adviser must.
Certification is the slow item. Identity documents are certified at the Australian embassy in the country you live in or by a local notary, and appointments are not same day; book the appointment in the same week as the pre-approval. Uruguay has no resident Australian embassy, the ambassador in Buenos Aires holds non-resident accreditation and Australia keeps an honorary consulate in Montevideo, so a Montevideo file plans its certification with that in mind. Brazil now requires Australians to hold a visa before arrival, under a decree of 9 April 2025, which does not affect the loan but does affect anyone planning to fly in to sign.
Then the clock. South America runs thirteen to sixteen hours behind eastern Australia depending on the country and the season, the widest gap in our expat cluster, and it is used as a handover rather than fought as a delay: what you send before you sleep is on an Australian desk for its whole working day while your city is dark, and the answer is waiting when you wake. Complete files rather than partial ones are the whole trick, because each missing payslip costs a day at this distance.
Country by country: São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Bogotá, Lima and Montevideo
Brazil produces the multinational and academic file: São Paulo salaries in reais at 70 per cent, an exit and entry regime that turns on the 184 day count and the exit declaration, IOF on the deposit, and no treaty. Argentina produces the mining and agribusiness file: peso or dollar packages, the 2025 opening of the exchange market, a treaty since 1999, and a wealth tax that reaches the Australian property. Chile produces the cleanest file: dollar packages, a treaty, a free exchange market with reporting from USD 10,000, and three years of Chilean source only taxation; the Santiago guide carries the detail. Colombia produces the family and education file: Bogotá and Medellín salaries in pesos, worldwide taxation from the second year, the wealth tax from 72,000 UVT and the exchange declaration on the transfer. Peru produces the resources file: Lima or site based, often in dollars, no treaty, domicile fixed at the start of each year, and no exchange restriction. Uruguay produces the smallest and newest file: Montevideo, the 183 day and centre of interests tests, the ten year non-resident option from 2026, and certification through Buenos Aires.
The rates we used to size the examples were all read on 11 September 2026: Brazil’s PTAX at 5.1149 reais per US dollar on 10 September, Argentina’s reference rate at 1,512.9956 pesos on 10 September, Chile’s dólar observado at 937.17 pesos on 11 September, Colombia’s TRM at 3,101.00 pesos on 11 September, Peru’s interbank selling rate at 3.35814 soles on 9 September and Uruguay’s 40.259 pesos on 10 September, each crossed at the Reserve Bank’s 0.7172 US dollars per Australian dollar on 11 September. A lender will use the rate on the day it assesses the file, so treat these as the shape of the numbers rather than the numbers.
What the six have in common is the sequence. The currency split decides the tier. The treaty position decides who advises on the rent. The residency test decides whether the property enters a local return. The exchange rule decides how long the deposit takes. Only then does the property search start, with a pre-approval that already reflects all four.
Buying a home in Australia from South America: the order that works
Buying a home in Australia from South America is the same purchase an Australian makes at home with four things moved: the salary is read in its currency and its tier, the deposit leaves under the exchange rules of the country you live in, identity is certified at the Australian embassy or a notary instead of a branch, and the clock runs thirteen to sixteen hours behind Melbourne so the file moves overnight. Everything else, the contract through an Australian conveyancer, electronic signing, valuation and settlement through PEXA, runs remotely and in English once the translations are in.
Search it as buying a home in Australia from South America, buying a house in Australia from Brazil, buying property in Australia from Argentina, buying a house in Australia from Colombia or can I buy a house in Australia from Peru: the answer for a citizen or permanent resident is yes from any of the six countries, and the file that settles cleanly is the one whose translations, certification and deposit trail were done in the pre-approval week rather than the contract week.
Six currencies, one rule: the loan is Australian.
Give a former banker your country, your package and the account it lands in. Back comes a borrowing figure across more than 40 lenders, the transfer and declaration sequence for your country, and a straight answer if the timing does not work yet.
Book a South America call with a former bankerRefinancing an Australian loan from South America
A loan you took out before leaving Australia can be moved to a better lender from anywhere on the continent, on the same shaded income assessment and the same certified documents as a purchase, without a flight home. It is often the easiest file of all from South America, because no money crosses the exchange market: the loan is in Australian dollars, the equity is in Australian dollars, and the only foreign element is the salary that services it. For an Australian in Buenos Aires whose peso salary is read at 70 per cent, or one in Lima whose dollar package is read at 80, the refinance question is the same: which lender reads the income you actually have most generously, and whether the equity in the property can become the deposit for the next one without a single real, peso or sol leaving the country.
Our guide to refinancing an Australian mortgage from overseas walks through the process, the lender rules by currency sit in the Australian expat home loans guide, and the country by country hub is Australian expat home loans by country. For a Chilean file, start with the Santiago guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can an Australian living in South America get an Australian home loan?
Yes. Australian citizens and permanent residents in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay buy and refinance at home through the lenders that accept overseas residents, with no FIRB step for a citizen. The salary is converted and shaded by currency: a US dollar package keeps 80 per cent at the lenders that list the dollar, while a salary in reais, pesos or soles is an other-currency file at 70 per cent, confirmed on each application. Identity is certified at the Australian embassy in your country or by a notary, contracts are reviewed by an Australian conveyancer, and settlement runs through PEXA without a flight home.
How do Australian lenders treat a salary paid in reais, pesos or soles?
As an other currency. Macquarie publishes nine accepted currencies and at least one major bank owned lender publishes a longer preferred list that adds AED, SAR, INR, IDR and VND at 80 per cent of gross income; none of the six South American currencies is on either list, so they are counted at 70 per cent under a credit delegation. On a Sao Paulo salary of BRL 360,000 a year, about AUD 98,000 at the 10 and 11 September 2026 rates, the ten points are close to AUD 10,000 of assessable income. Where part of the package is paid in US dollars, that part moves to the 80 per cent tier and is read as a separate income with its own contract and statements.
Does Australia have a tax treaty with Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru or Uruguay?
With two of them. Treasury lists the Argentina treaty as signed 29 August 1999 and in force from 30 December 1999, and the Chile treaty as signed 10 March 2010 and in force from 8 February 2013. Australia announced negotiations with Brazil on 13 December 2023 and with Colombia on 16 November 2022, and neither treaty had been signed as at the 24 March 2026 table. Peru and Uruguay have no treaty and no announced negotiation; Uruguay has a tax information exchange agreement in force since 1 July 2014. The loan is assessed on Australian tax rates whichever country you live in; the treaty matters for the rent and the gain after settlement.
Will my Australian property be taxed where I live in South America?
It depends on residency and on the country. All six tax residents on worldwide income: Brazil from the day of arrival on a permanent or employment visa or on the 184th day in twelve months, Argentina after permanent residence or twelve months on temporary authorisations, Chile after 183 days in twelve months but only on Chilean source income for the first three years, Colombia after 183 days in 365, Peru after 183 days with effect from the next tax year, and Uruguay after 183 days in the calendar year or the centre of your interests. Argentina and Colombia also levy wealth taxes that count real estate held abroad, with Colombia excluding only the home you live in. Australia taxes the rent and the gain first; a local adviser confirms the credit or the declaration in your country.
Can I move a deposit out of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia or Peru?
Yes, with different paperwork in each. Brazil charges IOF on the transfer, shown in the compiled decree at 3.5 per cent for a personal transfer and 1.10 per cent where the purpose is investment, with the 2025 wording before the Supreme Court, so the rate is confirmed with the bank on the day. Argentina has let resident individuals buy foreign currency without prior central bank approval since 14 April 2025 and credit it to their own account abroad, with the bank holding evidence of income consistent with the saving. Chile applies no exchange restrictions and reports operations of USD 10,000 or more. Colombia channels investment abroad through an exchange market intermediary with an electronic exchange declaration. Peru guarantees free holding and transfer of foreign currency in its constitution. Every lender then wants the statements that show the trail.
How do I buy a home in Australia from South America, step by step?
First, settle the currency split: which part of the package is in US dollars and which in the local currency, because that sets the tier and the budget. Second, get a pre-approval on that basis with a lender that accepts overseas residents. Third, order NAATI translations of anything in Portuguese or Spanish and book identity certification at the Australian embassy or a notary in the same week. Fourth, plan the deposit under your country rules, IOF in Brazil, the exchange declaration in Colombia, the reporting threshold in Chile, and keep every statement. Fifth, search with a buyers agent or family in Australia, have an Australian conveyancer review the contract, sign electronically, and settle through PEXA. Send complete files before you sleep and they are actioned during the Australian working day.
Sources
- Australian Treasury, income tax treaties table (Argentina signed 29 August 1999, in force 30 December 1999; Chile signed 10 March 2010, in force 8 February 2013; no Brazil, Colombia, Peru or Uruguay row), last updated 24 March 2026, read 11 September 2026: treasury.gov.au; tax information exchange agreements table (Uruguay, in force 1 July 2014): treasury.gov.au
- Treasury ministers, media releases: Australia to negotiate new tax treaties with Ukraine and Brazil, 13 December 2023: ministers.treasury.gov.au; tax treaty network expansion (Colombia), 16 November 2022: ministers.treasury.gov.au
- Receita Federal do Brasil, residency and exit declaration pages (184 days in twelve months, permanent and employment visas, Comunicação de Saída Definitiva to the last day of February), read 11 September 2026: gov.br/receitafederal; Decreto 9.580/2018, articles 744 and 746 (15 and 25 per cent withholding on non-residents): planalto.gov.br; Decreto 6.306/2007, article 15-B (IOF on transfers abroad, compiled text with the 2025 annotations): planalto.gov.br; Lei 14.754/2023, article 2 (foreign financial investments at 15 per cent): planalto.gov.br
- ARCA (Argentina), residency, worldwide income and Bienes Personales pages (2025 exempt minimum ARS 384,728,044.57 and scale), read 11 September 2026: afip.gob.ar and afip.gob.ar; Ley 23.966 Título VI and Ley de Impuesto a las Ganancias t.o. 2019, InfoLEG consolidated texts: infoleg.gob.ar; Banco Central de la República Argentina, Comunicación A 8226 of 11 April 2025 (individuals may buy foreign currency without prior approval from 14 April 2025): bcra.gob.ar
- Chile: Código Tributario article 8 and Ley sobre Impuesto a la Renta article 3 (183 days; three years of Chilean source only taxation), Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional: leychile.cl; Servicio de Impuestos Internos, Circular 63 of 25 November 2021 and FAQ updated 8 April 2026: sii.cl; Banco Central de Chile, Compendio de Normas de Cambios Internacionales 2026, Capítulo II (reporting from USD 10,000, formal exchange market), read 11 September 2026: bcentral.cl
- Colombia: Estatuto Tributario articles 9, 10, 261, 292-3 to 296-3, 300 and 314 (residency, worldwide patrimonio, wealth tax from 72,000 UVT, occasional gains at 15 per cent), Secretaría del Senado consolidated text: secretariasenado.gov.co; DIAN Resolución 000238 of 2025 (UVT 2026 COP 52,374): normograma.dian.gov.co; Banco de la República, Circular Reglamentaria Externa DCIP-83, Capítulo 7 (investment abroad channelled through exchange market intermediaries): banrep.gov.co
- Peru: Texto Único Ordenado de la Ley del Impuesto a la Renta, articles 6 to 8, 53 and 54 (183 days, domicile from the following year, 30 per cent non-domiciled rate on work income), SUNAT: sunat.gob.pe; Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, normas sobre el mercado cambiario (Constitution article 64, Decreto Legislativo 668, Decreto Supremo 068-91-EF): bcrp.gob.pe
- Uruguay: Texto Ordenado 2023, Título 7, articles 2, 6, 24 and 24-Bis (183 days, centre of interests, foreign source scope, ten year non-resident option from 2026 under Ley 20.446), IMPO: impo.com.uy; Dirección General Impositiva, causales de residencia fiscal, 20 October 2025: gub.uy
- Exchange rates read 11 September 2026: Banco Central do Brasil PTAX (10 September); BCRA Comunicación A 3500 reference rate (10 September); Banco Central de Chile dólar observado (11 September); Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia TRM via datos.gov.co (11 September); BCRP interbank rate (9 September); Banco Central del Uruguay cotizaciones (10 September); Reserve Bank of Australia, exchange rates table F11 (AUD/USD 0.7172 on 11 September; none of the six currencies published): rba.gov.au
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, country briefs and fact sheets for Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay (2021 Census born-in counts, 2025 investment stocks, agreements, mining cooperation), read 11 September 2026: dfat.gov.au; Smartraveller, Brazil (visa required before arrival): smartraveller.gov.au; Austrade, Australian METS companies build momentum in Latin America (2026): austrade.gov.au
- Lender currency and residency positions: Which Australian banks lend to expats (lender pages read September 2026)
- Australian Government foreign investment rules: foreigninvestment.gov.au
About the author. Ahmed Lotfi is co-founder of Everstone Finance and a former banker who now works as a mortgage and finance broker in South Yarra, Melbourne, arranging home, investment and commercial lending for Australians at home and abroad. Everstone Finance operates under the Best Interests Duty as Credit Representative 574314 of LMG Broker Services Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 517921.