Buying land in the Dominican Republic: what to verify first
The checks that decide whether a purchase is safe, and the two documents that are not the same thing even though they look alike.
Individual title or shared title
Many Dominican properties are still held under a constancia anotada. It certifies that you own a given number of square metres inside a larger parcel, but it does not say which square metres. The boundaries of your portion have never been fixed on the ground.
A Certificado de Título with a registered plan is the other case: an individual parcel with a unique cadastral designation and coordinates on file.
Moving from the first to the second is called a deslinde. It is a technical procedure before the land jurisdiction, followed by a legal and a registry stage. It is normal, it is common, and it takes time — which is why it is better discovered before you sign than after.
Three checks worth doing before you commit
Do the boundaries exist anywhere but on paper?
If the parcel was never surveyed with coordinates, its limits are described against a fence, a tree or a neighbour’s land. Those references move and disappear. A survey converts them into coordinates that do not.
Does the measured area match the title?
Differences between what a parcel actually measures and what an old title says are common. They are resolved before closing, not after — afterwards it is your problem, not the seller’s.
Is anyone else occupying part of it?
A neighbour’s wall, a road that was widened, a structure built across the line. All of it shows up in a survey and none of it shows up in the documents.
Why LiDAR matters on some parcels
Coastal and hillside properties in the east of the country are often under dense vegetation. Standard aerial photogrammetry reconstructs the canopy, not the ground beneath it, so on its own it is not suitable for drainage design or earthwork estimates.
LiDAR penetrates vegetation and returns ground elevation. We combine it with GNSS ground control on wooded or steep sites, which produces a terrain model you can build on rather than an image of the treetops.
What we do not do
We are surveyors, not attorneys or agents. We do not draft or review contracts, we do not give legal advice, we do not hold funds and we do not represent either side in a negotiation. We measure, we document, and we file the technical part.
If a survey turns up something that affects the price or the viability of a purchase, we tell you plainly and you take it to your attorney. That is the whole of our role, and it is more useful to you if it stays that way.
Have a parcel in mind?
Send us the parcel number and cadastral district. We review the history and tell you what you are actually buying.