In several of these markets a company is not one option among many — it is the only structure through which a foreigner can hold the asset at all. Here is what incorporation requires, and where it is genuinely the right answer rather than an accountant’s reflex.
Illustration — AI-generated artwork, not documentary photography.
The vehicle, what it takes to stand it up, and what it is actually used for by foreign investors in that market.
| Market | Standard vehicle | What foreign investors use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Colombia | SAS (Sociedad por Acciones Simplificada) | Genuinely flexible — single shareholder permitted, no minimum capital requirement in the usual sense, and it also underpins the business route to the investor visa at 100× the minimum monthly salary. |
| Mexico | S. de R.L. or S.A. de C.V. | Operating businesses, and as an alternative to the fideicomiso for holding restricted-zone property — though that route carries its own tax consequences and is not automatically better. |
| Brazil | Limitada | Operating businesses. Everything requires a CPF first, and foreign capital must be registered with the central bank to be repatriable. |
| Panama | Panamanian corporation | A long-established and widely used vehicle. Corporate tax is 25% on Panama-sourced income only. Special regimes exist for logistics and multinational headquarters. |
| Argentina | S.A. or S.R.L. | Operating businesses. The reform programme has reduced friction, but tax residency and intercompany transfer pricing are the questions that decide whether it works. |
| India | Private limited company under FDI | The door that is genuinely open. Most sectors accept foreign direct investment under the automatic route with no prior government approval — and for a foreign individual it is the realistic route to operating exposure, since property is closed. |
| Indonesia | PT PMA (foreign investment company) | Not optional if you want institutional-grade property exposure. Holds Hak Guna Bangunan, permits genuine rental operation, and is saleable as a company — which is the cleanest exit available to a foreigner. |
| Vietnam | Foreign-invested enterprise | Operating businesses and development. New free trade zones and international financial centre projects in Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Haiphong are the current policy vehicles. |
Verified 11 August 2026 against the sources cited in each market brief. Rules in this table change by decree and by court injunction, sometimes without announcement. Treat it as a map of where to look, not as legal advice, and confirm anything you intend to act on with a licensed practitioner in that country.
Incorporation is over-recommended. Advisers earn fees from it, and in half of these markets a foreign individual can simply buy the asset in their own name and should. So it is worth being precise about the three situations where a company genuinely earns its compliance burden.
When it is the only permitted holding structure. Indonesia is the clear case. A foreigner who wants a rental villa with a registrable, mortgageable, transferable title and the right to actually operate it commercially needs a PT PMA holding Hak Guna Bangunan. There is no individual route that delivers the same thing, and the minimum paid-up capital came down to IDR 2.5 billion in October 2025, which changed the arithmetic materially.
When the market is closed to individuals but open to capital. India. A foreign national of non-Indian origin cannot buy property, but foreign direct investment flows into most sectors under the automatic route without prior approval. If you want operating exposure to Indian growth, the company is the vehicle, because the title deed is not available.
When it unlocks a residency route. Colombia’s investor visa has a business limb at 100× the minimum monthly salary, substantially below the property threshold at 350×. For someone who intends to operate a business in Colombia anyway, that is the cheaper door.
Outside those three, ask hard what the company is for. In Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, a foreigner buying a home does not need one, and adding a corporate layer to a personal asset adds annual filings, accounting cost and often a worse tax position.
The SAS is the reason Colombia is easier to start a business in than its reputation implies, and it is worth understanding why.
It permits a single shareholder, allows the shareholder to also be the sole director, and does not impose the capital and governance formality that the older corporate forms carry. It can be constituted by private document rather than public deed in the ordinary case, registered with the chamber of commerce. For a foreign founder that combination removes most of the structural friction; what remains is tax registration, the RUT, and the ongoing accounting obligations, which are real and require a local accountant.
The business route to the investor visa runs through it. The threshold is set as a multiple of the salario mínimo mensual legal vigente — 100× for the business route against 350× for the property route — which means both thresholds move each year when the minimum wage is set. That indexation is a genuine planning consideration and one of the few numbers on this site that changes on a known annual schedule.
Our field report on forming an SAS walks the sequence end to end, including the documents a foreign founder needs apostilled before starting.
One trend runs through every jurisdiction on this list and it is worth stating plainly: the era in which a company existed only on paper and that was sufficient is closing.
Panama is the sharpest illustration. It remained on the EU list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions as of February 2026, obliging EU member states to apply defensive measures to Panamanian entities, and an economic substance law was expected before October 2026 that would condition the foreign-source exemption for entities in its multinational headquarters and manufacturing regimes. Individual investors were not the stated target. The direction is unambiguous anyway.
Indonesia’s PT PMA carries quarterly investment activity reporting to the investment board, corporate tax, VAT registration above threshold, and required Indonesian directors and commissioners. Brazil requires central bank registration of foreign capital. These are not incidental — they are the price of the structure being real enough to be useful.
The practical implication: budget for compliance as an ongoing cost, not a setup cost. A company that is cheap to form and expensive to maintain correctly is a common and avoidable mistake, and the maintenance cost is the one that decides whether the structure still makes sense in year four.
Every market in the table above has its own brief, built on the same eight blocks so the sections line up when you open two side by side.
Reported on the ground from Medellín — the flagship brief and the deepest coverage on the site.
Read the brief →Banxico, the nearshoring trade, and the Article 27 restricted zone.
Read the brief →The Selic, the CPF, and registering foreign capital so it can leave again.
Read the brief →Territorial tax, dollarization, and the investor threshold that rises in October 2026.
Read the brief →The reform trade, the currency band, and the track record behind both.
Read the brief →The strongest structural growth in the set, and the hardest direct access.
Read the brief →No freehold for foreigners — and the three structures that do work.
Read the brief →The FTSE reclassification landing 21 September 2026.
Read the brief →