Resources
What we learn walking buyers through Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cozumel, explained plainly.
None of the three buying guides we read on September 22, 2026 says that in Quintana Roo you own the property only once the deed is recorded. Until then, two notices from the notary protect you.
Read the guide →The pages we read on September 18, 2026 give 2 or 3 percent for acquisition tax and none of them names a municipal finance law. Here are the three rates with their article, each municipality's property tax and the 5 percent state tax due on a sale.
Read the guide →The five area guides we read on September 15, 2026 describe the feel of each neighborhood and do not mention the urban development program. Here is each area and how to read the program and the land use certificate for the lot you want.
Read the guide →The three English guides we read on September 11, 2026 do not say how much VAT and income tax the platform withholds. Here is every line between your nightly rate and your bank account, with the article that sets it, including the 2026 rule for owners whose payouts go to an account abroad.
Read the guide →The guides we read on September 8, 2026 all repeat check the permits, and not one cites a single article of law. A development's file rests on three records governed by three different federal laws, and all three can be verified without relying on the seller's word.
Read the guide →The income requirement for your residency is set in days of minimum wage, voluntary IMSS coverage comes with a questionnaire and waiting periods, and there is a retiree property tax discount that none of the guides we read mentions. All three rules, with their sources.
Read the guide →We reviewed the guides currently ranking for buying in Playa del Carmen and found in none of them a citation to the municipal revenue law or the federal mortgage lending law. That is where the deduction the law gives you exactly once, the real property tax rates, and the twenty days a bank cannot move all live.
Read the guide →The property you use that also produces income is the plan we are asked for most. It is also the easiest one to build wrong, because at the first guest you stop being an owner and become a lodging service provider. Here is the file, read from the statutes.
Read the guide →The guides we read compare atmosphere and returns. None of them says they are three separate municipalities, with three revenue laws and three acquisition taxes. That difference is paid on closing day.
Read the guide →Everyone compares Playa del Carmen with Tulum and skips the island. A full guide to the island market: the 3% municipal acquisition tax, the protected natural area and the federal zone on the waterfront.
Read the guide →Pre-construction is the most common way into the Riviera Maya market at the best price. This version brings what the law makes a developer disclose before you sign, with article numbers.
Read the guide →The question foreign buyers ask us most. Yes, and the instrument is called a fideicomiso. Including the filing and the fee almost nobody mentions.
Read the guide →The guides that rank close on an appreciation percentage nobody breaks down and that contradicts itself across pages. Here is what can be checked: the timetable, the fare and the departures board.
Read the guide →The guides that rank publish an unsourced dollar table, and all of them measure a tenant. This is the buyer's budget, starting with the electricity bill.
Read the guide →Sedetus identified 118 irregular subdivisions in the state. These are the signals that make us stop a deal, and the official lookups you can run yourself before wiring anything.
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