Real estate trusts and tokenization in Latin America: what each country allows

A real estate trust (fideicomiso inmobiliario) is a contract under which the developer or the landowner transfers the land or the funds to a trustee, who holds them as a separate estate to develop, manage or secure a project. Today only Argentina has an authorised route to tokenize it: the securities of a financial trust with a public offering, under the CNV regime. In Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador offering its rights to investors is a public offering or a regulated activity, and none has an authorised route to tokenize them today. This guide is about the vehicle, not the platform; the general definition is in the fideicomiso glossary entry.

What a real estate trust is and who is involved

It is a contract, not a company: the settlor (fiduciante) transfers ownership of assets to the trustee (fiduciario), who exercises it for the beneficiary and, at the end, transfers it to the fideicomisario (art. 1666 of Argentina's Civil and Commercial Code, CCyC). In a real estate project:

• Settlor (fiduciante or fideicomitente): the landowner, the developer or the investors who put in money.
• Trustee: manages under the contract. In Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador it must be an authorised institution; in Argentina, only in a financial trust with a public offering (art. 1673 CCyC).
• Beneficiary and fideicomisario: receive the results and, at the end, the assets.

Its value lies in the separate estate, which does not answer for the trustee's debts: art. 1685 CCyC in Argentina, art. 386 of the General Law of Negotiable Instruments and Credit Operations (LGTOC) in Mexico, art. 1233 of the Commercial Code in Colombia and art. 241 of Law 26702 in Peru. In Ecuador the estate also has legal personality (art. 109 of the Securities Market Law, LMV, Book II of the Organic Monetary and Financial Code).

Structures: which one can raise money from investors

• At-cost or construction trust. Buyers put up the money for the works and receive units. In Argentina it is a market practice built on the general contract in art. 1666 CCyC; in Colombia, the closest structure is the pre-sales real estate trust (SFC Basic Legal Circular, section 8.2.3).
• Guarantee trust. It secures a loan, such as the developer's financing, and the trustee applies incoming funds to repay it (art. 1680 CCyC; arts. 395 to 407 LGTOC).
• Administration trust. The trustee manages the property or the funds, makes payments and transfers the units (in Colombia, art. 2.5.5.7.3 of Decree 2555 of 2010, added by Decree 0510 of 2026).
• Real estate trust. Colombia and Ecuador define it as a category (art. 2.5.5.7.5 of Decree 2555; Codification of Resolutions, Book II, Title XIII, art. 17). In Ecuador buyers' money cannot be used on the works until the trust company certifies the break-even point (punto de equilibrio; Title XII, art. 31).
• Financial or securitisation trust. It issues securities: the Argentine financial trust (arts. 1690 to 1696 CCyC), the Mexican FIBRA (arts. 187 and 188 of the Income Tax Law), Colombian real estate securitisation (art. 5.6.5.1.1 of Decree 2555), the Peruvian securitisation trust (art. 300 of the Consolidated Text of the Securities Market Law) and real estate securitisation in Ecuador (art. 143 LMV).

To raise money from investors, the last one is the tool: the one that issues authorised securities. Argentina also has Collective Investment Products for Real Estate Development (CNV Rules, Title V, Chapter V, Section II), whose securities can give the right to be allotted units (art. 6): in practice, an at-cost trust with a public offering. Since CNV General Resolution 1146/2026 they can be issued under the automatic Expanded Medium Impact regime, open to the general public up to 100 million UVA. Colombia has a middle route: fiduciary participations.

When it is a public offering in each country

• Argentina. It is an invitation to people in general or to specific groups, including through social media, to deal in negotiable securities, which include investment contracts (art. 2 of Law 26,831). The CNV applied this to two ordinary real estate trusts raising money online with internal resale: Crowdium (2019) and Sumar Inversión (2020). Offers within the safe harbour are not public: up to 35 purchasers per issue, no more than 15 of them non-qualified (CNV Rules, Title XX, General Resolution 1088/2025).
• Mexico. It is an offer made through mass media to unspecified persons (art. 2 of the Securities Market Law), which requires registering the securities in the National Securities Registry (art. 7). In addition, the trustee cannot raise funds from the public unless it issues registered securities (art. 106, section XIX, point c, of the Credit Institutions Law, and equivalent rules for other trustees).
• Colombia. It is an offer aimed at unspecified persons or at one hundred or more specified persons (art. 6.1.1.1.1 of Decree 2555). Fiduciary participations are not securities (SFC, Opinion 2018115106-001), but offering them to the public or to 20 or more people requires the SFC to review the contract model first, and the money is only released once the break-even point is reached (Basic Legal Circular, section 5.5).
• Peru. It is an invitation duly publicised to the public or to segments of it (art. 4 of the Consolidated Text of the Securities Market Law), with prior registration (art. 51). Offers made only to institutional investors or with a unit value of at least PEN 250,000 are private (art. 5).
• Ecuador. Fiduciary rights cannot be promoted or offered to the public without first meeting the securitisation requirements (art. 138 LMV), and certificates of beneficiary status cannot be traded (Codification, Title XIII, art. 12). What is allowed is the pre-sale of units with a promise-to-sell agreement and a break-even point (Title XII, art. 31).

What can be tokenized and where there is an authorised route

A token does not transfer the property: it represents the rights the trust issues, such as a participation certificate or a debt security (art. 1693 CCyC), or a fiduciary participation. The question is whether the country allows them to be recorded on a distributed ledger (DLT).

Argentina: the only authorised route. CNV General Resolution 1069/2025 created Title XXII of the CNV Rules, whose first stage covered securities of financial trusts and units of closed-end funds holding real-world assets; General Resolution 1150/2026 extended the sandbox until 31 December 2027. Conditions:

• A financial trust with a public offering and a trustee registered with the CNV (Title V, Chapter IV, art. 6).
• Virtual asset service providers (PSAVs) registered in all five categories (art. 14 of Chapter I of Title XXII): as of 2 October 2026, 33 of the 81 on the CNV register were. Their platforms count as an authorised public-offering venue (art. 39).
• The token does not in itself confer ownership or voting rights: the holder of record exercises them, after consulting investors.
• General Resolution 1146/2026 excludes financial trusts over virtual assets from the automatic regimes.

An ordinary trust selling tradable tokens online falls outside this route; in our view, it matches the reasoning of the Crowdium and Sumar Inversión cases. More in asset tokenization in Argentina.

Mexico: no authorised route. In 2017 the Finance Ministry (SHCP), Banxico and the CNBV warned that security tokens can be securities, and in 2021 that financial institutions, trustees among them, may not offer virtual asset transactions to the public. Neither the LMV nor the CNBV Single Issuers Circular mentions distributed ledgers. See asset tokenization in Mexico.

Colombia: no authorised route. The SFC sandbox (arenera) has no tokenization pilots with trust companies (list as of September 2026), Decree 0510 does not mention tokenization and supervised entities cannot hold crypto-assets in custody (SFC, Opinion 2020259314-001). Detail in the fiducia mercantil entry and in asset tokenization in Colombia.

Peru: no authorised route. The Consolidated Text only provides for securities represented by book entries or by certificates (art. 85); the route with investors is securitisation, for example a FIBRA (SMV Resolution 009-2019-SMV/01, art. 71). See asset tokenization in Peru.

Ecuador: no specific route. Since 2025 the LMV has recognised developers of DLT solutions as a technology service (art. 73.1), but the Codification of Resolutions as of 20 August 2026 does not implement it, and assigning fiduciary rights over real estate requires a public deed and the trust company's acceptance (Title XIII, art. 9). See asset tokenization in Ecuador.

Real estate trusts country by country

Tokenized trust versus real estate crowdfunding

In crowdfunding, what is regulated is the intermediary platform. In a tokenized trust, what is regulated is the vehicle and its issue: the investor buys a security of the trust, and the technology only changes how it is recorded and transferred.

• Argentina: in the Crowdium case, an ordinary trust raising money online with an internal market was treated as a public offering of investment contracts.
• Mexico: outside the securities market, the alternative is co-ownership through a trust via an authorised crowdfunding institution (IFC).
• Colombia: since Decree 34 of 2025, an autonomous estate can receive crowdfunding, but only as debt.

We compare the region's regimes, with their investor caps, in real estate crowdfunding in Latin America.

Common mistakes

• Quoting art. 1673 CCyC in its 2014 wording. It was replaced by art. 201 of Law 27,440 (2018); the bar on raising money from the public comes from Law 26,831 and art. 310 of the Criminal Code.
• Believing the token gives ownership of the property. It represents rights against the trust; in Argentina, not even the vote.
• Using the token to skip the break-even point. In Colombia and Ecuador buyers' money stays locked until the trust company verifies it (Basic Legal Circular, section 5.2.1.4; Codification of Resolutions, Title XII, art. 31).
• Confusing FIBRA and FIRBI in Peru. A FIBRA is a securitisation trust and a FIRBI is an investment fund (SMV Resolution 029-2014-SMV/01); the tax benefits of both run until 31 December 2026 (Laws 30532 and 31650).
• Promising returns. In Mexico, Banxico Circular 1/2005 forbids trustees from guaranteeing returns (rule 6.1); in Colombia, fiduciary participations must warn that they do not guarantee returns (Basic Legal Circular, section 3.3.7.3).

How we work with developers

Unknown Gravity is a Spanish tokenization and blockchain infrastructure company. We start from the vehicle set up by the local trustee, with local legal counsel, and build the digital representation, the smart contracts and the integration with authorised intermediaries on top of it. We do not hold assets in custody in countries where we are not authorised to. More in real estate tokenization.

Official sources

• Argentina's Civil and Commercial Code (InfoLEG)
• Mexico's General Law of Negotiable Instruments and Credit Operations
• Colombia's Commercial Code
• Peru's Consolidated Text of the Securities Market Law
• Ecuador's Codification of Resolutions, Book II

Framework verified as of 2 October 2026. A project in Latin America? Talk to us.