The Aruban florin to the US dollar: fixed at Afl. 1.79 since 1986

One US dollar buys Afl. 1.79, the rate the Centrale Bank van Aruba has held since 1986, so the Aruban florin does not float against the dollar and a florin price is a dollar price at a fixed ratio. For a buyer at YOO Aruba the peg matters less than it might elsewhere, because every residence is priced and sold in US dollars, from $443,000; where it does matter is in the Aruban taxes that the law writes in florins.

What is the Aruba florin to dollar exchange rate?

The Aruban florin trades at Afl. 1.79 to one US dollar, and it has done so since 1986. The rate is not a market outcome that happens to have been stable; it is a fixed peg maintained by the Centrale Bank van Aruba, the island's central bank, which is why the rate does not move from one day to the next. In practice this means that a florin figure and a dollar figure are two ways of writing the same amount, at a ratio that has not moved since 1986.

The reason the fact belongs on a property page is that it removes a question a foreign buyer usually has to ask about a Caribbean purchase: what happens to the value of a home bought in one currency and held in a country that uses another. In Aruba the local currency is tied to the dollar, so a buyer whose savings and income are in US dollars is not taking a second currency position by owning here. For a buyer who earns in euros the question is different, and the last section returns to it.

Do I pay for a YOO Aruba residence in florins or in US dollars?

In US dollars. Every one of the 26 residences at YOO Aruba is priced and sold in USD, from $443,000 for a one-bedroom of 748 sq ft, and the price in your sale and construction agreement is a dollar figure that the peg has no effect on. The optional rental program, run by Mastermind Hospitality Group, reports in USD as well, so an owner who places a residence in it reads income and costs in the same currency the home was bought in. There is nothing to convert at purchase and nothing to convert when the program reports to you.

What the peg does change is the arithmetic around the purchase rather than the purchase itself. Aruban law writes its property taxes in florins, and anything else the island bills in its own currency converts to dollars at the same 1.79, today and, for as long as the peg holds, tomorrow. A buyer therefore reads a florin bill by dividing by 1.79, and reads it the same way next year. Delivery is estimated for Q4 2027, and the contract price does not move with a currency in the meantime, because there is no floating currency in it.

Which Aruban taxes are written in florins, and how does the peg affect them?

Two. The transfer tax, overdrachtsbelasting, is charged to the buyer at the notary in two tiers: 3% on the part of a property's value up to and including Afl. 250,000, and 6% on the part above that, under the tax plan in force since January 2023. The threshold is a florin figure written into Aruban law; at the peg it is roughly US$139,665, an approximation offered for orientation only, because the statutory line is drawn in florins and the notary applies it in florins. This page does not work the tax out on a $443,000 residence: it states the two rates and the threshold, and leaves the notary to produce the figure for the unit you choose.

The second is the annual land tax, grondbelasting, which for an owner who is not an Aruban-resident individual is 0.6% of the property's total assessed value; residents pay a progressive scale that starts at 0% for values up to Afl. 120,000 and reaches 0.60% from Afl. 750,000. Those bands are florin figures too, and assessed values are set for five-year periods. A foreign buyer who later takes up residence in Aruba moves onto the progressive scale, so 0.6% is the non-resident position, not a permanent one.

What does the peg mean for day-to-day costs on the island?

It means that a price you see in florins is a dollar price you can read at a glance, and that the reading does not change from one visit to the next. That is the whole of the claim: the peg fixes the ratio between the two currencies, not the level of prices in either. What a coffee, a tank of fuel or an electricity bill costs in Aruba is not in the sourced material behind this site, so this page does not quote them; what it can say is that whatever they cost in florins, they cost the same number divided by 1.79 in dollars.

The utilities line matters for an owner because the developer's rental analysis treats electricity and water as a variable cost tied to occupancy and deducts them, with HOA, before it arrives at its projected 9-16% net operating income. Those costs will reach you in florins or in dollars depending on who bills them; the peg ensures only that the two figures agree.

What does the peg not protect a buyer from?

Three things, and a page that sold the peg without them would be selling too much. First, the fixed rate is a policy of the Centrale Bank van Aruba, and this page does not forecast what any central bank does next; it reports a rate that has held since 1986 and stops there. Second, the peg fixes a ratio, not a price: HOA fees, land-tax assessments (revalued for five-year periods), transfer-tax tiers (last changed in 2023) and the cost of living can all move while the florin stays at 1.79. Third, it is a peg to the US dollar only. A buyer from France, Belgium, Canada or the Netherlands still carries the euro's or the Canadian dollar's move against the US dollar between signing and Q4 2027 delivery and for every year of ownership; that exposure is real, and it is the buyer's own to manage.

None of this is a reason to hesitate; it is the honest shape of the fact. A currency fixed for decades removes one variable from a foreign purchase, and at YOO Aruba the purchase itself is in dollars anyway. What remains is the ordinary work of owning property abroad: reading the florin-denominated taxes correctly, and asking an Aruban tax advisor to confirm your position before you rely on any figure here.

Common questions

Will my price at YOO Aruba change if the florin moves?

The price is contracted in US dollars, so a move in the florin would not change it; and the florin has not moved against the dollar since 1986. What can change are the florin-denominated taxes and their assessed base, not the price of the residence.

How do I convert an Aruban florin amount to dollars?

Divide by 1.79: that is the fixed rate, unchanged since 1986. The first florin figure a buyer meets is the transfer-tax threshold of Afl. 250,000; its approximate dollar equivalent appears above, and the notary applies the threshold in florins.

Does the rental program report in florins?

No, in USD: YOO Aruba's optional rental program reports in US dollars, the currency the residence is bought in. How and when an owner is settled is set by the program's own terms; ask for them in writing.