In accordance with legal requirements, all real estate holdings must be registered at the Real Estate Registry Office. For the purposes of registration, real estate encompasses land and any permanent improvements affixed thereto. Security, accuracy, and transparency are the basic principles of land registry.
The land register information in Brazil can be accessed on the Real Estate Registry Office of the city or district where the land is located. There are municipalities with more than one real estate registry office. In this case, each office is responsible for keeping the record of properties located in certain districts or counties within the municipality. If the competent Registry Office is unknown it may be searched at https://mapa.onr.org.br/.
The document where the information on the property is called “Matrícula”, and it may be obtained by anyone either in person at the competent Registry Office or online through the website https://www.registrodeimoveis.org.br/ upon payment of an official fee. There are private websites that also provide theses services unofficially, and charging a service fee apart from the official fee.
All information is in Portuguese at the website, and the Matrículas are also issued only in Portuguese. There may be employees speaking English at the Registry Offices, so calling the competent one and inquiring on English speakers may be possible. If so, then going in person is feasible for a non-Portuguese speaker.
The easiest way of obtaining the Matrícula is by providing its number at the competent Registry Office. If that number is unknown, you can provide the taxpayer number of the owner or the complete address in person or by phone so the number of the Matrícula may be located.