Britain left the EU, closed its investor visa, and in 2025 ended the non-dom regime. A lot of British capital is now looking outward for the first time in a generation. Here's the honest British-buyer version: moving pounds in cleanly, the UK–Brazil treaty that's signed but not yet live, and where Brazil is the wrong answer.
Unlike a French or German buyer, you are now outside the EU — and that changes the maths. Brexit ended freedom of movement, so your second home in Spain or Portugal now comes with the 90-days-in-any-180 Schengen limit hanging over it; overstay and you're an overstayer. The UK's own Tier 1 Investor visa closed in early 2022 and hasn't been replaced. And in April 2025 the non-dom regime was abolished, replaced by a much narrower four-year foreign-income-and-gains window for new arrivals. For internationally-minded Britons, the old furniture has been rearranged.
Against that, Brazil is one of the few large, stable countries that still lets a livable property purchase and a real permanent-residency track travel together — at around a third of Portugal's old golden-visa price. R$1,000,000 — roughly £155,000 in mid-2026 — clears the investor-visa floor with a deeded South Zone apartment. And a Brazilian passport, after four years, adds visa-free or visa-on-arrival travel to 170+ countries. It is not a route back into the EU — be clear-eyed about that — but for a Briton who wants a warm base, a hard asset off sterling, and an onward residency and passport option, the door is genuinely open.
Sterling doesn't arrive in a suitcase. Every pound that buys the apartment enters Brazil through a registered foreign-exchange contract (a contrato de câmbio) at a licensed Brazilian bank and is logged with the Central Bank on the RDE-IED register in your name. That registration is the single most valuable piece of paper in the deal: it's what later lets you take the money out — repatriate a sale, send rental income back to the UK — at the official rate, and it's the clean trail an investor-visa file and your UK tax position both rely on.
The order is: get a CPF (the Brazilian tax ID, obtainable from the consulate in London before you fly), open a Brazilian account, then wire pounds from your UK bank into the FX contract so they arrive as reais with the câmbio and BACEN registration done in your name. We coordinate this with the bank and the buyer's lawyer so it lands correctly first time. The pound has been strong against the real, which quietly lowers the sterling cost of a Rio apartment — several British buyers have timed a purchase to the câmbio rather than the calendar.
Here's the nuance that trips people up. For decades the UK and Brazil had no comprehensive double-taxation treaty at all — a notable gap between two large economies. That changed on 29 November 2022, when the two governments signed their first comprehensive double-taxation convention, modernising the treatment of dividends, interest, royalties and capital gains. But signing is not the same as entering into force: the treaty must complete ratification in both countries — in Brazil, approval by Congress and presidential decree — before it applies. As of 2026 that process is advanced but not yet complete, so the treaty is not yet in effect.
What does that mean for a buyer today? Relief on cross-border income runs, for now, through the UK's unilateral foreign-tax-credit rules — broadly, HMRC lets you credit Brazilian tax paid against UK tax on the same income even without a treaty. When the convention does enter force, it should make several positions cleaner and more predictable. Either way, this is precisely why a UK buyer needs an accountant who knows the current state of play — the answer literally depends on whether the treaty is live at the moment you file.
The end of the non-dom regime in April 2025 is the backdrop to a lot of British enquiries. The old remittance basis is gone, replaced by a residence-based system with a four-year window on foreign income and gains for qualifying new UK residents. For some internationally-mobile people, the answer is to change where they're resident altogether — and a Brazilian home plus residency is one option on that board. But the UK's Statutory Residence Test is precise and unforgiving: leaving the UK for tax purposes is about days, ties and records, not intentions. Get it wrong and you're still UK-resident and taxed as such.
The Brazilian mirror: cross 183 days inside Brazil in any rolling 12-month window and you become a Brazilian tax resident on worldwide income. A visiting owner never triggers it; a genuine relocation does — and that's the moment the UK's Statutory Residence Test, the (soon) treaty and Brazil's day-count all have to be read as one plan. We cover the Brazilian side in the foreign-owner tax article and the visa guide.
British Airways flies London Heathrow to Rio nonstop, around eleven and a half hours, year-round — an evening departure, a morning arrival over Guanabara Bay. And the clock barely fights you: Rio is only three to four hours behind the UK, so a London lunchtime is a Rio mid-morning and the working days overlap almost entirely. For anyone still tied to a UK business, that's the practical difference between a genuine base and a place you can only visit on holiday. No red-eye penance, no 4 a.m. calls.
In Rio, British buyers settle into Ipanema, Leblon, Lagoa and Botafogo — walkable, cosmopolitan, well used to English-speaking residents. English carries you through daily life and runs the whole purchase with us. Cost of living lands well under London: staff, dining, private healthcare and a car all cost materially less, which is half the arithmetic behind moving a search this far south. Start with the neighbourhood guides, and for a like-for-like on beach cities, read Rio vs Lisbon vs Miami.
you want a warm base outside the UK and outside the EU's post-Brexit day limits; a hard asset off sterling; a lower entry price (from ~£155k) and a lower cost of living; and you like that the same purchase seeds a permanent-residency track and, in four years, a passport that travels to 170+ countries. If the end of non-dom has you rethinking where you're resident, Brazil belongs on the list of options to model. That's the British buyer we structure purchases for.
what you actually want is your EU rights back — the freedom to live and work across the continent Brexit took away. A Brazilian passport won't give you that; an EU golden-visa programme will. If that's the goal, we'll point you to it and wish you well rather than sell you a beach you don't want. We only want the buyers Brazil genuinely suits.
Tell Charlie you're buying from the UK and roughly what you plan to invest. He reads every enquiry himself and replies the same day with a straight answer on the purchase, how pounds move in, where the treaty and your residence position stand, and — if you want it — the visa route for your situation.
There is one, signed on 29 November 2022 — the first comprehensive convention between the two countries — but as of 2026 it has not yet entered into force. It still has to complete ratification in both countries. Until it's live, relief on cross-border income runs through the UK's unilateral foreign-tax-credit rules (HMRC generally lets you credit Brazilian tax against UK tax on the same income). The practical question for your accountant is whether the treaty is in force by the time your income arises.
No. A Brazilian passport gives you visa-free travel to the Schengen area (90 days in any 180) and 170+ countries in total — but not the right to live and work in the EU. If reversing Brexit's loss of freedom of movement is your goal, you need an EU golden-visa route, not Brazil. Brazil is the answer when you want a home, a lower entry price and a base outside Europe. Our Brazil-vs-Portugal comparison lays the choice out honestly.
It can be one option, not a magic one. The 2025 abolition of non-dom pushed many internationally-mobile people to reconsider where they're resident, and a Brazilian home plus residency is one board to consider. But leaving the UK for tax purposes turns on the Statutory Residence Test — days, ties and records, not intentions — and getting it wrong leaves you UK-resident anyway. Model it with a UK accountant before you commit.
Yes. Brazil places almost no restrictions on foreign buyers of urban residential property — you own the apartment outright in your own name, on the same footing as a Brazilian. You'll need a CPF (the Brazilian tax number, available from the consulate in London) and the funds brought in through a registered FX contract. Rural and border-zone land is restricted, but that doesn't touch a South Zone apartment.
Through a registered contrato de câmbio at a Brazilian bank, logged with the Central Bank in your name. That registration is what lets you repatriate the sale proceeds and send rental income back to the UK at the official rate, and it's the clean paper an investor visa is built on. Never let money arrive as an undocumented transfer. We coordinate the wire-in with the bank and your lawyer.
Four years of continuous legal residency (one year with a Brazilian spouse or child), a basic Portuguese test, and a clean record. Brazil recognises dual citizenship and the UK allows it, so you keep your British passport. The catch: naturalisation expects you to genuinely live in Brazil during those years, so it suits people actually relocating, not day-trippers.