Guides → BUYING PROCESS

BUYING PROCESS

Financing Property in Aruba as a Foreigner: Your Real Options

Your home bank won't lend on an Aruba condo, so what actually works? The three routes foreign buyers really use: cash, a local Aruban mortgage, and borrowing against a home back home, with the LTVs, rates, and paperwork to expect.

By Jakob Jakubov, every winter on Aruba since 2021 · Updated August 2026 · 11 min read

Why your home bank says no

Let's start with the wall everyone hits: no US or Canadian bank will write a mortgage on a property in Aruba. It's not about your credit. A mortgage is only as good as the lender's ability to seize and sell the collateral if you default, and a bank in Toronto or Tampa has no mechanism to register and enforce a lien on Aruban land, which lives in the Aruban land registry under Aruban law. So they simply don't lend there.

That single fact reshapes how foreign buyers finance here. Your options aren't "which bank at home gives the best rate" they're the three routes below.

Option 1: Cash

The most common way foreign purchases actually close on Aruba, and for good reason.

Paying cash means no financing contingency, no cross-border underwriting, and no waiting on a local bank's appraisal. Your offer is cleaner, sellers take it more seriously, and you get to keys faster: often shaving weeks off the notary timeline. You also dodge the whole question of what a lease term does to a lender (relevant if the place is land lease).

The obvious cost is opportunity: that capital is now parked in a house instead of invested. For a lot of second-home and lifestyle buyers, that's a fine trade. For someone who'd rather keep their money working, one of the borrowing routes below may beat it.

Option 2: A local Aruban mortgage

Some Aruban banks do lend to non-residents: this is a genuine option, just a more conservative one than you're used to at home. Here's the shape of it:

All placeholders. LTV and rates vary by bank and by property, and are exactly what to confirm with the lender before you rely on them.

The trade-offs versus a home-country mortgage: you'll put more of your own cash in (lower LTV), you'll document your income more heavily (foreign employment or business income gets scrutinized), and the rate reflects the local market, not wherever you're from. Underwriting is also slower, so if you're financing locally, tell your agent early and build the extra weeks into your offer.

One wrinkle specific to Aruba: if the property is land lease, the bank will care that the remaining term comfortably outlasts the loan . A short lease can shrink how much, or whether, a local bank will lend. That's one more reason to nail down the lease numbers early, per the freehold vs. land lease guide.

Option 3: Home equity back home

For many US and Canadian buyers, this is the quiet winner. Instead of borrowing in Aruba, you borrow against a property you already own at home, a HELOC or a cash-out refinance on your primary residence, and then buy in Aruba with the proceeds, as a cash buyer.

Why it's often the best money:

• Better rates and terms. You're borrowing against home collateral your lender understands, usually at rates well below a local Aruban mortgage.
• A lender you already know, in your own currency, with no foreign-income underwriting.
• A simple Aruba-side closing. To the seller and notary, you're just a cash buyer.

The trade-off is real and worth saying plainly: you're securing an Aruba purchase against your home back home. If the Aruba plan goes sideways, the house on the line is your primary residence. Size it conservatively, and if you're American, remember the IRS angle; if Canadian, the CRA and T1135 angle.

Which option fits which buyer

No universal answer: it depends on your rates at home, your liquidity, and your risk appetite. A rough guide:

The cheapest mortgage for an Aruba condo usually isn't in Aruba. It's the equity in the house you already own.

What local banks ask of foreigners

If you go the local-mortgage route, expect to produce more than you would at home. Typically :

• Proof of income, pay stubs, tax returns, or business financials, often for the last two years.
• Bank statements and evidence of the down-payment funds.
• A property valuation the bank orders (or accepts) on its terms.
• ID and sometimes proof of your home address, plus source-of-funds documentation.
• Life or property insurance as a condition of the loan.

None of it is exotic: it's just more, and slower, than a domestic refinance. Start gathering documents before you find the property, not after, and your local mortgage won't be the thing that blows the notary timeline.