Buying an Apartment in Armenia From Abroad: Steps, Documents, Costs

You can buy an apartment in Yerevan without making repeated trips. Some steps are done remotely, and the documents are signed either in person or by a representative you authorise. This guide follows the order of a purchase: how to shortlist and view a flat from another country, how to check that the seller can sell it, how to issue a power of attorney abroad, what form the contract takes, how the right is registered, how to pay, and what tax the owner pays afterwards.

Every legal fact below is tied to an act or to the website of a state body. The number in square brackets points to the list of sources at the bottom. Information as of 15–16.10.2026; the land rules as of 21.10.2026. Rules and rates change, so confirm them with a notary or a lawyer before you sign. This guide is general information, not legal advice.

Which route applies to you

Your passport decides two things: which way of closing the deal is open to you and what the rules say about land.

The purchase in eight steps

1. Define the purpose and the budget, and make a short list of apartments.
2. View the shortlisted apartments by video and ask for the documents on each.
3. Obtain the unified certificate from the real estate register and compare it with the seller's papers.
4. Decide how you will take part in the deal: in person, through a representative, or online if you are an Armenian citizen.
5. If you will not travel, issue a power of attorney abroad: before a notary with an apostille, or at an Armenian consulate.
6. Sign the sale contract in the form the law requires.
7. File for state registration of the right within the legal deadline.
8. Pay by bank transfer, receive the registration certificate, and then pay the property tax each year.

Step 1. Shortlist and view the apartment remotely

Start from the purpose, not from the district: a home for yourself, a base for visits, or an investment. The purpose drives the floor, the layout, the age of the building and the running costs. A short list is easier to compare than a long feed of adverts.

Photographs do not replace an inspection. Ask for a video viewing and keep the recording: the street and the entrance, the stairs and the lift, every room, windows, ceilings and corners, the balcony, heating, plumbing and wiring. Ask separately what is included in the sale: a parking space, a storage room, a balcony or a terrace.

Compare what you see with what the documents say: address, area and layout. If the real layout differs from the registered one, clarify it before you pay a deposit, not after.

If the building is still under construction, ask the developer about the building permit and the handover terms. Checking a developer is a separate subject and is not covered here.

Agree on a person in Armenia who can visit the apartment on your behalf: to follow the works, to pay bills and to collect keys. It can be someone you trust or a specialist from an agency.

Step 2. Check ownership: the unified certificate

The seller's right is checked against a certificate from the state unified real estate cadastre. The law calls it the unified certificate (in Armenian, միասնական տեղեկանք). It lists the rights and restrictions registered against the property at the moment of issue, and the law describes it as the document that confirms this information when transactions are concluded [1, art. 32 pt 6].

What to know:

• Who can ask. You do not have to be the owner: the Cadastre Committee states that a person who is not the owner can apply for the extract [14]. The law gives the right to receive cadastre information to each person [1, art. 32 pt 1].
• Where. The law allows a written application to be filed at any consulting centre of the register, whatever the location of the property; an application for information can also be filed electronically through the register's website system (e-cadastre.am) [1, art. 32 pt 3].
• Time. No later than the third working day after the application [1, art. 33 pt 1].
• Fee. The unified certificate for one property costs AMD 10,000 [1, art. 73 pt 1 sub 9]. Information on all registered restrictions costs AMD 5,000 [1, art. 73 pt 1 sub 11.1], and on all registered rights AMD 5,000 [1, art. 73 pt 1 sub 11.3].
• Validity. The certificate is valid for 15 working days [1, art. 32 pt 6; 14]. If more time passes before the signing, request a new one.
• Age limit. The unified certificate is issued only for properties whose rights were registered after 1 March 1998 [1, art. 32 pt 6].

What to compare: who is listed as owner and in what shares; whether the name and data match the seller's passport; the cadastral code, the address and the area; which restrictions are recorded. If the person negotiating is not the owner, ask for the document that authorises that person.

Step 3. Who may buy: citizens and foreign nationals

Foreign citizens and stateless persons enjoy the same civil legal capacity in Armenia as Armenian citizens, except in cases provided by the Constitution, by laws or by international treaties [2, art. 1263]. The Land Code restricts rights to land: foreign citizens and stateless persons cannot own land and may only be land users; persons with a special residence status in Armenia are the exception [4, art. 4 pt 3]. The restriction does not apply to plots for a household or a garden, for an individual residential house, for public and production facilities and for a multi-apartment building [4, art. 4 pt 3.1]. From 1 November 2026 the exception passes to foreigners with permanent residence status granted for exceptional services to the Republic of Armenia; those who obtained special status before that date keep their rights until it expires [16, art. 1; art. 3 pt 2].

The Land Code restriction concerns land. How it applies to a share in the land under a particular building is not covered here, and it is a question to put to a lawyer before you pay a deposit.

Armenian citizens living abroad have one more route since July 2026, according to the Cadastre Committee: an online transaction (see the section below). For a foreign citizen the general rule is a contract certified by a notary [2, art. 562 pt 2]; it can be signed in person or through a representative under a power of attorney (Step 4). Whether the model-form route at a Cadastre Committee office (Step 5) is open to a foreign citizen, check with the Committee before the deal.

Step 4. A power of attorney issued abroad

If you cannot travel, a representative can close the deal. A power of attorney is a written authority that one person gives to another to represent that person before third parties [2, art. 321 pt 1]. For transactions that need notarial form, the power of attorney must be certified by a notary unless the law provides otherwise [2, art. 321 pt 2]. A sale of real estate is subject to notarial certification (see Step 5), so signing before a notary requires a notarially certified power of attorney.

Term and form:

• The power of attorney may not run for more than three years; if no term is stated, it is valid for one year from the date of issue [2, art. 322 pt 1].
• A power of attorney that does not state the year, month and date of issue is void [2, art. 322 pt 1].
• A substitution of the representative must be certified by a notary [2, art. 323 pt 3].

Name the property in the document, the right to sign the contract, the right to file the registration application and to collect the certificate, and the term. A person acting under a power of attorney, notarial or simple written, may also file the registration application [1, art. 24 pt 7 sub 1].

There are two ways to certify the document abroad.

A notary in your country, plus an apostille. An Armenian notary accepts documents drawn up with the participation of officials of competent bodies of other states, or issued by them, if Armenian consular bodies have certified them in the established manner, except where international treaties provide otherwise [3, art. 87]. Armenia is a party to the 1961 Hague Convention abolishing the requirement of legalisation for foreign public documents: accession on 19 November 1993, in force from 14 August 1994 [9]. The Convention covers public documents, including notarial acts and official certifications of signatures [8, art. 1]. The only formality a Contracting State may require is the apostille [8, art. 3]. So for a power of attorney issued in another Contracting State, an apostille replaces consular legalisation. The list of parties is kept by the Hague Conference [9].

An Armenian consulate. Abroad, notarial acts on behalf of Armenia are performed by the bodies of the Armenian diplomatic service [7, art. 43 pt 1], and on their behalf by consular officials [7, art. 43 pt 2], under the procedure of the Law on Notariat [7, art. 43 pt 3]. Ask the consulate in your country about appointments and fees.

Language. Notarial acts are performed in literary Armenian; only documents drawn up in literary Armenian are subject to certification, unless the law provides otherwise. Documents used in Armenia, including contracts that require state registration of the rights arising from transactions, are drawn up only in Armenian [3, art. 39 pt 1]. If the notary or a party is not sufficiently familiar with the language of the document, an interpreter is invited [3, art. 39 pt 2]; a person who does not speak Armenian may take part in notarial acts through an interpreter [3, art. 39 pt 7]. An interpreter may be a person holding a qualification certificate of proficiency in the language whom the notary trusts, except in cases provided by this law [3, art. 46 pt 1]. Whether a certified translation of a foreign-language power of attorney is needed, and in what form the notary takes it, is for the notary to confirm before you issue the document.

Step 5. The sale contract and its form

Under a real estate sale contract the seller undertakes to transfer a plot, building, structure, apartment or other real estate into the buyer's ownership [2, art. 561]. The contract is concluded in writing as one document signed by the parties [2, art. 562 pt 1] and is subject to notarial certification [2, art. 562 pt 2]. A transaction that does not observe the required notarial form is void [2, art. 300 pt 1].

There is an exception. The notarial requirement does not apply to contracts under, among others, art. 562 of the Civil Code if all their terms follow the Government-approved model forms of contracts that do not require notarial certification, contain no other terms, and the authenticity of the parties' signatures is recognised under the law on state registration of rights to property [2, art. 299 pt 4]. On e-cadastre.am such contracts are prepared from the model forms (Government Resolution No. 1851-N of 22.12.2011), and the parties sign in person at a service office of the Cadastre Committee [12].

What to check in the text before signing:

• the parties are named exactly as in their documents: full name, passport details, shares;
• the address, the cadastral code and the area match the register certificate;
• the price and the payment procedure are stated in full, as they will be carried out;
• what the price includes: parking, storage, furniture, appliances;
• the handover date and who settles unpaid utility and other charges;
• whether the certificate shows restrictions and how the contract deals with them.

At the parties' wish, a document may be certified in Armenian and, at the same time, in a foreign language, if the notary is sufficiently familiar with that language; if the notary or a party is not sufficiently familiar with the language of the document, an interpreter is invited [3, art. 39 pt 2]. Texts certified at the same time in Armenian and in a foreign language have the same legal force; if they conflict, the Armenian text prevails [3, art. 39 pt 4]. A contract that needs registration is drawn up only in Armenian [3, art. 39 pt 1].

The application to register the rights arising from the contract must be submitted no later than 30 working days after notarial certification; missing this deadline invalidates the transaction (such a transaction is void) unless the grounds named in pt 6.1 existed [1, art. 24 pt 6]. Under pt 6.1 a missed deadline is treated as excusable if the applicant shows that it was missed for reasons beyond their control; the law names such reasons, for example force majeure or an illness of the applicant that prevented them from exercising the right [1, art. 24 pt 6.1]. The transfer of ownership under a sale contract is subject to state registration [2, art. 563 pt 1].

The online route for Armenian citizens: what the Cadastre Committee reports

According to the Cadastre Committee's announcement of 20.09.2026, since July 2026 citizens of Armenia can conclude real estate sale agreements entirely online, without notarisation and without visiting an office; the system also registers the resulting rights automatically. The first such transaction was concluded on 10.09.2026 [10].

According to the announcement of 28.07.2026, the agreement is concluded in the Personal Office section of the Committee's official platform and signed with a qualified electronic signature; these services are available to citizens of Armenia living abroad and allow remote transactions without additional procedures [11].

These are statements by the Committee, not the text of a law. The announcements speak only about citizens of Armenia; they say nothing about foreign citizens [10; 11]. Check the conditions on e-cadastre.am or with a notary before you rely on it.

Step 6. State registration of the right

State registration is carried out by the real estate registers, whose list is approved by the head of the Cadastre Committee [13]. The application is filed at a service office of the Committee, whatever the location of the property, or online at e-cadastre.am; for an online filing, the authenticity of the application and documents is confirmed by the applicant's electronic signature [13]. As worded in the law, the application is filed through the electronic system of the register's website and confirmed by an electronic digital signature; in the cases the law provides for, it may also be filed at any consulting centre of the register, whatever the location of the property [1, art. 24 pt 1].

Who files. Either party to the transaction may file the application for the rights arising from it [1, art. 24 pt 6]. It is filed in person by the right holder or by a representative acting under a notarial or simple written power of attorney [1, art. 24 pt 7].

What is attached. When the application is entered at a register office, the applicant shows an identity document and attaches the documents that confirm the right, the receipt for the state duty where the Law on State Duty provides for it, and the receipt for the registration fee [1, art. 24 pt 3].

Terms and amounts:

The amounts come from the text of the law on the date of checking. Compare the amounts with the Committee's site before you pay. The law makes exceptions to these amounts for particular cases (art. 73 pt 1 sub 1, 9, 11.1, 11.3); they are not covered here.

After registration a certificate of state registration of the right is issued. The authenticity and validity of the new-format certificate (issued since 1 July 2019) can be checked on e-cadastre.am by entering the certificate number and password [13].

Tax and registration. When property is registered (except for the first registration of ownership), and also when a new certificate of registration of the right is issued, individuals who are property tax payers settle the tax on that property in full for the period that includes the month of registration or issue, before the registration or issue itself [5, art. 236 pt 2]. In the cases this article provides for, registration is carried out on the basis of a certificate from the accounting body confirming that there is no tax liability on the property [5, art. 236 pt 4].

Step 7. Paying for the apartment

The law restricts cash settlements. Since 1 July 2023, payments above AMD 300,000 between individuals in Armenia, for all transactions, are made in non-cash form [6, art. 5 pt 2]. If an organisation or a sole trader concludes a transaction on the disposal of property with an individual, payment above AMD 300,000 is made in non-cash form [6, art. 4 pt 1]; the article adds that other laws may set lower limits and other exceptions. Where one party is a foreign organisation and the payment or its receipt takes place in Armenia, the non-cash form applies to any transaction with organisations, sole traders, notaries, lawyers and individuals in Armenia; the law names no amount threshold in this part [6, art. 4 pt 2]. Notarial fees are also accepted in non-cash form [6, art. 4 pt 4].

Part 1 of the same article names a threshold of AMD 500,000 (from 1 July 2022) for transactions between individuals whose rights are subject to mandatory registration, unless other laws set lower limits [6, art. 5 pt 1]. Part 2 names AMD 300,000 for all transactions between individuals from 1 July 2023 [6, art. 5 pt 2]. Work with the lower figure, AMD 300,000.

State registration of rights is subject to the anti-money-laundering law [1, art. 1 pt 3]. The Civil Code allows cash and non-cash settlements and lets a law restrict cash [2, art. 142 pt 3].

Practical rules:

• pay to the details given in the contract, not under verbal arrangements;
• do not transfer a large sum before you have seen the register certificate;
• keep the payment orders and receipts;
• ask your bank which documents it will want for a transfer from abroad.

The owner's taxes after the purchase

Property tax is a local tax: it is paid to the community budget on property that belongs to the taxpayer by right of ownership [5, art. 224 pt 1]. Taxpayers are organisations and individuals [5, art. 225 pt 1]. The objects of tax include an apartment in a multi-apartment residential building that is registered under a separate code with the body that keeps the register [5, art. 227 pt 2 sub 1(b)]. Owners of apartments in a multi-apartment residential building are not treated as taxpayers for the part of the land plot (including the land under the building) held in common shared ownership and needed to service and maintain the building, or for the common-use areas [5, art. 225 pt 1].

The tax base is the cadastral value brought closer to the market value of the property and determined under the law that sets this valuation for property tax [5, art. 228 pt 1]. The body that keeps the cadastre revalues property once every three years [5, art. 228 pt 3].

Annual rates for apartments are progressive by cadastral value [5, art. 229 pt 1 sub 3]:

An example by this formula: at a cadastral value of AMD 25 million the tax is 5,000 + 0.1% of 15 million (the part above 10 million) = AMD 20,000 a year. You can ask the register for the cadastral value of a particular apartment: information on the cadastral value of a property and the data on which it is calculated costs AMD 1,000 [1, art. 73 pt 1 sub 11.6].

Individuals pay by 1 December of the tax year inclusive, to the budget of the community where the property is located; organisations pay by half-year, by 1 June and by 1 December [5, art. 236 pt 1].

Tax on rental income, tax on a later sale and questions of tax residency are not covered in this guide.

How Akcern helps

The Akcern purchase page describes how the work is organised [15]. For buyers from the diaspora there is a separate option: video viewings, remote legal due diligence and a deal signed by your representative under a power of attorney [15]. For a private buyer the buyer-side support is free: the commission is paid by the seller or the developer; legal support for the transaction is billed separately and is the client's choice [15]. If you found a property yourself, you can order a check of that property without buying through Akcern, as a separate package [15]. According to the page, from signing the engagement with Akcern to receiving the keys usually takes four to eight weeks [15].

Legal due diligence, negotiation and the transaction are specialist work, not AI [15]. Akcern does not replace the checks described above: you can request the register certificate and check it yourself.

How Akcern checks properties in its catalogue is described on the Verified by Akcern page: the method consists of 13 checks.

Contact: «Ակցեռն» ՍՊԸ, 17 Davit Anhaght St, Yerevan 0069, tel. +374-10-277662 [15].