Deed, registration and ITBI: what's the difference?

Are the deed, registration and ITBI the same thing?

No. They are three different things, in three different places, and only one of them makes you the owner of the property. The public deed is the statement of intent of the sale, drawn up at the notary's office (cartório de notas). The ITBI is a municipal tax you pay to city hall in order to transfer the property. And registration is the act, performed at the Real Estate Registry Office (Cartório de Registro de Imóveis), that actually puts the property in your name. Signing the deed and paying the ITBI does not make you the owner — only registration does. That's why confusing the three is the costliest mistake when buying a home in Brazil.

What is the public deed (and why it alone doesn't make you the owner)?

The public deed is the document that formalizes the negotiation — who sells, who buys, for how much and under what terms — drawn up by a notary at the notary's office. Brazil's Civil Code requires it for real estate deals "worth more than thirty times the highest minimum wage in force in the country" (art. 108); below that value, or in cases such as financing with a fiduciary lien (alienação fiduciária), the law accepts a private instrument with the same force — a topic we cover in our article on fiduciary liens and the public deed.

The detail almost everyone gets wrong: the deed proves you agreed to the purchase, but it does not transfer the property. Until it is taken to registration, the seller legally remains the owner. The deed is the title; what's missing is the mode — registration.

What is property registration, and why does it matter most?

Registration is the only one of the three that actually changes ownership. The Civil Code leaves no room: "Ownership is transferred between living parties through the registration of the transfer title at the Real Estate Registry" (art. 1,245). And the following paragraph adds: "as long as the transfer title is not registered, the seller continues to be regarded as the owner of the property." In other words: without registration, the property still belongs to the seller — even with the deed signed and the keys in hand.

Registration is done at the Real Estate Registry Office covering the property's area and goes onto the property record (matrícula), the document that works like the property's "birth certificate," where its entire history is recorded (owners, mortgages, liens). Buying without registering is the classic contrato de gaveta ("drawer contract"): you paid, you live there, but to the State, the bank and the registry the owner is still someone else — and the property remains exposed to the seller's debts and bankruptcy.

What is the ITBI and when does it come in?

The ITBI — Imposto de Transmissão de Bens Imóveis, the real estate transfer tax — is a municipal tax (Constitution, art. 156, II) charged by city hall on the onerous transfer of a property, such as a sale (gifts and inheritance pay a different tax, the ITCMD). The rate varies from city to city, generally between 2% and 3% of the property's value.

The practical point: the ITBI is a condition for registration. The Real Estate Registry Office will not register the transfer without proof that the ITBI has been paid — which is why it comes midway, after the deed and before registration. Which value the tax applies to has already been disputed: in 2022 the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) ruled (Theme 1,113) that the basis is the actual declared transaction value, not a municipal table — although several city halls keep trying to charge on their own reference value, an issue still under discussion in the courts.

In what order does all this happen?

In a typical cash purchase, the sequence is: (1) the public deed is signed at the notary's office (or the private instrument, when the law allows); (2) the ITBI is paid at city hall and the payment slip is issued; (3) everything is taken to the Real Estate Registry Office, which registers the transfer on the property record. It's only at step 3 that the property becomes yours.

In a financed purchase the logic is similar, but the bank's contract — with the fiduciary lien — plays the role of the deed, and it's the registration of that contract that constitutes the guarantee. The order shifts a little; what doesn't change is that none of it counts without registration at the end.

What this means for developers and buyers

For the buyer, the lesson is a single one: keep the deed, but don't stop there. What protects your assets is registration. An unregistered property can't be used as collateral for a loan, can't be sold safely and can be dragged down by the previous owner's debts.

For the developer, the message is about experience and cash flow. A sale is only truly complete when the paperwork — deed or contract, ITBI and registration — is resolved. Every late ITBI slip or pending registration holds up the handover of the keys, delays the payment release and turns into an after-sales complaint.

Where Conecta comes in

Conecta is the digital concierge and real estate despachante that handles this journey end to end. We orchestrate financing, the deed, the ITBI and registration over WhatsApp, making sure the deal doesn't stall at the deed or get stuck on the ITBI slip and actually reaches registration on the property record — which is what makes the property the buyer's. For the developer, it's a sale closed with the documentation in order; for the buyer, it's the certainty of being, on paper and in law, the owner.

Want to simplify the after-sales of your developments? Talk to Conecta.

Frequently asked questions