Is there a residency-by-investment programme in Aruba?

This page cannot say. The sourced material behind it carries no such programme and no statement that a property purchase counts toward residency, so it asserts neither that one exists nor that it does not. DIMAS, the Aruban immigration department, is the authority to ask, and an Aruban immigration lawyer can put a buyer's case to it.

Does the 0.6% land tax apply to a company that owns a YOO Aruba residence?

Yes. The flat 0.6% of total assessed value applies to every owner who is not a resident natural person, and a company is never a natural person, so it pays that rate whatever its shareholders' status.

Will the sales team help with my residence permit?

No. The sales team's scope is the residence, the sale and construction agreement, the notary and the delivery timeline. Immigration is handled by DIMAS and by an Aruban immigration lawyer of the buyer's choosing.

Ownership & title

Does buying an apartment in Aruba give me a residence permit?

Updated September 2, 2026 8 min read

The short version

Ownership and residency are separate in Aruba: a foreign buyer needs no permit to own a YOO Aruba residence, and owning one does not by itself confer the right to reside.
Residence permits are the business of DIMAS, the Aruban immigration department; this page states no category, fee, duration or income threshold, because none is in the sourced material, and the sales team does not advise on immigration.
Status changes the annual tax: an owner who is not a resident natural person pays land tax of 0.6% of the total assessed value, while a resident individual is assessed on a progressive scale from 0% to 0.6%.
The transfer tax at purchase is the same for everyone and has two tiers: 3% on the part of the value up to Afl. 250,000, then the higher 6% tier on the part above that line. YOO Aruba's 26 residences, priced in USD from $443,000, complete no later than Q4 2027.

No: buying an apartment in Aruba does not give a foreign buyer a residence permit. Aruba places no restriction on foreign ownership, so a buyer takes full title to a YOO Aruba residence through an Aruban civil-law notary without any permit, but living on the island beyond a visit is a separate application to DIMAS, the Aruban immigration department, whose categories, fees and durations this page does not carry and will not guess. What it can set out is the line between owning and residing, and where that line changes what an owner pays.

Can I own property in Aruba without a residence permit?

Yes. Aruba places no restriction on foreign ownership of real estate, and no permit of any kind is a condition of buying. A buyer who lives in the United States, Canada or Europe takes full title to a YOO Aruba residence in their own name, or in the name of a company, through an Aruban civil-law notary, who conveys the deed free of mortgages and encumbrances and registers the transfer. The buyer does not need to be present: the paperwork runs through the notary from abroad, with the sales team coordinating by email and video call.

The only file the developer asks a buyer to assemble is its own compliance check — a valid passport, a proof of address under three months old, the most recent tax return and a bank statement showing the source of funds, with incorporation documents and directors' passports added for a company — and none of those items is an Aruban immigration document. Ownership is a property question, and it is settled at the notary.

Does owning a residence at YOO Aruba lead to residency?

Not by itself, and this page will not dress the answer up. Admission to live on the island is decided by Aruba's own immigration department, DIMAS. Whether a property purchase counts for anything in that decision, which permit categories exist, what they cost, how long they last and what income they require are all questions the material behind this page does not answer, so it states none of them. It states neither that a residency-by-investment route exists nor that it does not, and it makes no claim about citizenship.

What it can say is where the answer lives. DIMAS publishes its own requirements, and an Aruban immigration lawyer can read a particular buyer's case against them. The sales team's scope is the residence, the sale and construction agreement, the notary and the delivery timeline; it does not advise on immigration, and a page that pretended otherwise would be promising something nobody at YOO Aruba can deliver.

How does residency change the taxes on the residence?

It changes one of them. The transfer tax paid at purchase is the same for a resident and a non-resident: 3% on the part of the value up to and including Afl. 250,000, with 6% on the part above it, paid by the buyer at the notary under the tiers in force since 2023. The annual land tax, the grondbelasting, is where status matters. An owner who is not a resident natural person of Aruba — a foreign individual still resident abroad, and every company — pays a flat 0.6% of the total assessed value. A resident natural person is assessed on a progressive scale instead, set by the 2018 amendment to the Landsverordening grondbelasting that took effect in 2019: 0% for the lowest band, up to Afl. 120,000, rising in steps to 0.6% for the top band, which begins at Afl. 750,000.

The assessed value itself is fixed by the tax office for five-year periods rather than reset each year. A foreign buyer who later becomes a resident moves from the flat rate onto the progressive scale, so the annual bill follows the owner's residence status, not the deed; the test that makes an individual a resident natural person for land-tax purposes is a question for an Aruban tax advisor, separate from any permit DIMAS grants. Whether Aruba taxes a gain on a later sale in an individual's hands is not settled in the sources behind this page, and it is a question for an Aruban tax advisor rather than for a residence-permit article.

Owning versus residing at YOO Aruba: what changes and what does not
Question	Owner who is not a resident natural person	Resident natural person
Right to own the residence	Open; title through an Aruban civil-law notary	Open; the same notary
Transfer tax at purchase	3% up to Afl. 250,000, 6% above	Identical
Annual land tax (grondbelasting)	Flat 0.6% of total assessed value	Progressive scale, 0% to 0.6%

Who can answer the permit questions this page cannot?

Three parties, each for a different piece. DIMAS, the Aruban immigration department, decides who may reside on the island and publishes what it requires; it is the only authority whose answer on a permit means anything. An Aruban immigration lawyer reads a buyer's own circumstances — nationality, income, family, the plan for the residence — against those requirements and files the application. An Aruban tax advisor answers the separate question of when an owner becomes a resident natural person for land-tax purposes, and what a change of status does to the annual bill.

So that nobody mistakes silence for an answer, here is what this page wanted and does not have: the permit categories and their names, the fee for each, how long each is granted for and how it is renewed, the income or asset thresholds, the processing time, whether a property purchase weighs in the decision, the route to permanent residency, the position of Dutch and other EU nationals, and the day-count that makes a person tax-resident. Every one of those is a fact a buyer should get from DIMAS or a lawyer in writing, and none of them should be taken from a developer's page, this one included.

What can a buyer count on from YOO Aruba in the meantime?

Everything on the property side is fixed regardless of status. YOO Aruba is a five-storey boutique building of 26 residences on Kukwisa in Ponton, a residential district of Oranjestad, about 5 minutes from downtown, 6 from Eagle Beach and 10 from Queen Beatrix International Airport. Every residence is priced and sold in US dollars, from $443,000 for a 748 sq ft one-bedroom to a 2,082 sq ft penthouse, and the florin the island runs on has been fixed at Afl. 1.79 to the dollar since 1986. The developer commits to completing the building no later than the fourth quarter of 2027 and to transferring title at the notary within sixty days of completion.

None of that depends on a permit. An owner who never becomes a resident holds the residence outright, may use it as a second home, and may place it in the optional rental program run by Mastermind Hospitality Group, which is open to owners and carries no minimum rental requirement. An owner who does obtain residency holds exactly the same deed; what changes is the land-tax scale, and that is the whole of the difference this page can document.

Rendering of the YOO Aruba building in daylight from the street corner in Ponton — 26 residences open to foreign owners; not yet built, delivery Q4 2027

Common questions

Is there a residency-by-investment programme in Aruba?: This page cannot say. The sourced material behind it carries no such programme and no statement that a property purchase counts toward residency, so it asserts neither that one exists nor that it does not. DIMAS, the Aruban immigration department, is the authority to ask, and an Aruban immigration lawyer can put a buyer's case to it.
Does the 0.6% land tax apply to a company that owns a YOO Aruba residence?: Yes. The flat 0.6% of total assessed value applies to every owner who is not a resident natural person, and a company is never a natural person, so it pays that rate whatever its shareholders' status.
Will the sales team help with my residence permit?: No. The sales team's scope is the residence, the sale and construction agreement, the notary and the delivery timeline. Immigration is handled by DIMAS and by an Aruban immigration lawyer of the buyer's choosing.