What is the cost to buy land or a lot in Yucatan?
Alfonso Galindo - I Go Yucatan
Right now in the Yucatan, there’s probably over 12 different residential lot developments with country clubs, where the roads are built and the utilities are built, where if you want to buy just the land to build your own home, the lots are going anywhere between US $5,000 to US $20,000 just for the land, varying in size.Depending on if you’re buying in the country or next to a smaller village or a larger city, your price would range from 5 pesos (US 31 cents) a...
Right now in the Yucatan, there’s probably over 12 different residential lot developments with country clubs, where the roads are built and the utilities are built, where if you want to buy just the land to build your own home, the lots are going anywhere between US $5,000 to US $20,000 just for the land, varying in size.Depending on if you’re buying in the country or next to a smaller village or a larger city, your price would range from 5 pesos (US 31 cents) a square meter to 1,500 pesos (US $ 93.75) a square meter. An average rate for most of these developments is about 180 pesos (US $11.25) a square meter. That would be a pretty generic fair price in what most of these new land subdivisions are selling for. This would translate to about $11,400 for a quarter of an acre.
(Pictured: Very high end .38 acres for sale in Yucatan at a listed price of US $112.500.)
Posted September 19, 2015
Doug Willey - Doug Willey, Independent Real Estate Consultant
You cannot ballpark the prices in the whole Yucatan Peninsula because the prices in Cancun and in Playa del Carmen are much different than in the State of Yucatan. To give you an example, you can buy a very nice, ¼ acre beach lot in Chelem, Chuburna, or Progreso (in the state of Yucatan in the beaches nearest to Merida) for US $100,000. If you do not want to be on the beach, the price changes depending on how many streets back from the beach you...
You cannot ballpark the prices in the whole Yucatan Peninsula because the prices in Cancun and in Playa del Carmen are much different than in the State of Yucatan. To give you an example, you can buy a very nice, ¼ acre beach lot in Chelem, Chuburna, or Progreso (in the state of Yucatan in the beaches nearest to Merida) for US $100,000. If you do not want to be on the beach, the price changes depending on how many streets back from the beach you want to be located.
One of the most popular areas here for people to buy, whether it be land to build a home or buying an existing home is what we call “Beach Road” or in other words, it parallels along the beach. On one side of that road, you’ve got the beachfront homes, then you’ve got the road, then homes start again. So if you buy a home on the beach road that is not on the beach side, then you can save a lot of money. You still have a nice view, especially if you put a two-story home up. You still have a great ocean view. You are not directly on the ocean but you can walk to it in less than a minute. You can save a lot of money by going back one street or even the non-beach side of the street. A ¼ acre lot that is located back one street from the beach costs about $70,000.
Another thing that a lot of people have realized is that having an oceanfront home is very nice on a nice day but having it on a bad day is not very good. You have the winds coming off of the ocean, it blows the sand and everything rusts. As an example, people who own oceanfront properties have to buy a water heater at least every two years because they just turn into a pile of rust. When you move back one street away from the ocean, you would probably use the same water heater for four years. If you’re living directly on the ocean, the life span of anything that you own that is made of metal goes down to half than if you live back one street.
A ¼ acre lot in Merida (the large city in the state of Yucatan) varies because there are different colonias (areas) in Merida. If you want to be where all the other expats want to be, you can go to one of the areas called Santiago. There is not a lot of land for sale in Merida so if you’re buying there, you are going to buy an existing home. Homes in the Santiago area starts between $150,000 and $180,000, and this would be a home that needs some work. If you want a home that has already been done by a gringo, where everything is up to standard and you have air-conditioning and the whole 9 yards, you will spend around $300,000 and up. If you go to a different colonia where not all the gringos are, then the prices would be cut in half.
Less than a tenth of an acre oceanfront lot in Playa del Carmen (a very popular expat location on the Riviera Maya, which includes Cancun, Cozumel and Tulum, in the state of Quintana Roo), starts at around $300,000. If you go off the ocean from Playa del Carmen it gets cheaper. There is a major highway that takes you from Cancun to Playa del Carmen and to Tulum. If you are on the ocean side of the highway, you will spend big money but if you go on the other side of that highway, you would spend a 1/3 of the money.
(Beach in Tulum, Yucatan, Mexico with a Maya site within view, pictured.)
Posted January 5, 2016
Mitch Keenan - Mexico International Real Estate
The cost to buy land in the Yucatan could run from around US $20 up to $2 million. The price depends on the size of the land, the location, whether there is electricity connected or not, if it’s located in a town of any proportion, and what the access is like – whether it has a paved road coming in or not. Other factors that affect the price of land here is if there is water connection, if it is walled in or not, what kind of vegetation is on it – whether it has mature...The cost to buy land in the Yucatan could run from around US $20 up to $2 million. The price depends on the size of the land, the location, whether there is electricity connected or not, if it’s located in a town of any proportion, and what the access is like – whether it has a paved road coming in or not. Other factors that affect the price of land here is if there is water connection, if it is walled in or not, what kind of vegetation is on it – whether it has mature trees or not. So depending on these factors, you could buy land that is very cheap or very expensive.Merida is the principle city in the state of Yucatan. If you are going to buy land in the better neighborhoods in the north side of Merida, which are mostly pure Mexican neighborhoods, you could pay up to $200,000 per ¼ acre. If you buy way outside of town, and if you buy something that isn’t walled in or doesn’t have any electric service or doesn’t have any mature trees, you might be able to buy land for as low as $1,000 per ¼ acre.
In the end, the cost to buy real estate here is not that expensive because the taxes on it are what is the real bargain. You can have a house that you paid $1 million for but your taxes are going to be just around $200 to $300 a year.
(Home with a pool surrounded by the jungle, Yucatan, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted February 13, 2016
Gustavo Cisneros - Petén
There are completely different prices for land in the Yucatan Peninsula. You would be spending millions for a 400-meter plot of land in the Riviera Maya, which is in the state of Quintana Roo. A 400-meter sized beachfront lot with a depth of 300 meters in the corridor between Cancun and Playa del Carmen would cost around US $20 million. Everything in that area is in that price range because you have the biggest and the strongest companies behind the building of the hotels. That is why the...There are completely different prices for land in the Yucatan Peninsula. You would be spending millions for a 400-meter plot of land in the Riviera Maya, which is in the state of Quintana Roo. A 400-meter sized beachfront lot with a depth of 300 meters in the corridor between Cancun and Playa del Carmen would cost around US $20 million. Everything in that area is in that price range because you have the biggest and the strongest companies behind the building of the hotels. That is why the prices in that area are quite expensive. If you move down along the coast, the price of land would be lower but you wouldn’t find much available. Even in Tulum, which is the next stop after Playa del Carmen, there is not that much land available. A 2,000 square foot seafront lot would be in the range of $150,000 to $200,000 for raw land. There are also a lot of building restrictions there.Merida (the largest city in the state of Yucatan) has changed a little bit in terms of land prices. Seven years ago, the most expensive piece of land here was $150 per square meter, but now it can go for almost $400 in the most expensive parts of Merida. Wealthy people have come over to Merida, which caused a big demand for land so prices have been going up. Regardless of this, Merida is still the cheapest city in terms of real estate in comparison to Cancun or Playa del Carmen, or other areas except in Campeche (the third state in the Yucatan Peninsula), which is also cheaper. Some of the people who live on the nearby states see the quality of places that Merida offers and the cost of the land and it is a huge benefit for them. The cost benefit relation in Merida is very interesting. People like that.
When you move to the coast from Merida, there is a very strange situation. The locals in Merida are demanding the land that goes from Progreso (directly north of Merida, on the coast) to the east, so the prices there are astonishing. They could go for up to $30,000 per linear meter for oceanfront land, so if you want to buy a piece of property that is 10 meters, it would cost around $300,000 in the nicest areas. It may be a price that some people may not understand but it is not actually the land itself but the area where it is located that is so special to the local people. This is where they spend their summers and this is where they want to be or where their kid’s friends are, so it is special.
Regardless of the price, people still pay this amount in order to have land east of Progreso in the 25-mile corridor that goes from Progreso all the way to Telchac. As you keep looking, you will find that only less than 10% of the area is available now. That area has been growing and the prices are incredible. In the Telchac area, the prices could range from $15,000 per linear meter, beach front. If you move to the other side of Progresso, or further to the areas like Chelem or Chuburna, prices are in the range of $5,000 to $8,000 per linear meter, but it is different. They already have houses that have already been built. There could be old houses that you have to demolish before you build.
When you move further west and a bit south along the coast towards the Sisal area, the prices could range depending on the area because there are zoning restrictions and environmental conditions. When you have top conditions to build, real estate in Sisal could cost around $8,000 per linear meter and in other areas, it could be around $5,000 to $6,000 per linear meter. The depth of the land would be around 100 meters. It is not that much. These are all seafront. A quarter of an acre of acre of land would cost around $80,000.
The composition here is very interesting because it always acts the same. You get the full value of the land on the sea front, and the rest would be about 35% of the value of the beachfront if you go back one row. The second row would be around 25% to 30% of the value of the beach front.
The last town as you continue to move along the coast south is Celestún. Most of the land in Celestún are reserves, so there are restrictions. In order to buy a lot, you are required to buy 100 meters by 100 meters; 100 meters beach front by 100 meters depth. That is the minimum size of the lots in Celestún. You could be buying property for $3,000 per linear meter but you
have to buy $300,000 in that property. There are also restrictions on the amount and on the number of restrooms and bathrooms that you can build in that area. It is a little bit tricky sometimes because people do not know this information. They are happy that the price is $3,000 per linear meter but the real issue is how much of that land you can use and how much you can build on. That makes a lot of a difference.
(Diagram showing the Gulf of Mexico and the Flamingo Preserve surrounding the development of Peten Seaside Community in Sisal, Mexico
Posted March 2, 2016
Thomas Lloyd - Top Mexico Real Estate
We are currently doing a project in Playa del Carmen where a 2,500 square meter (well over half an acre) lot costs about 750,000 Mexican pesos (around US $43,000). That’s the starting point.If you get closer to the beach, that cost per square meter is going to multiply. For example, the cost is around 3,500 Mexican pesos (US $200) per square meter in a gated-guarded community closer to the beach. So, the same lot I described in the paragraph above will cost about...
We are currently doing a project in Playa del Carmen where a 2,500 square meter (well over half an acre) lot costs about 750,000 Mexican pesos (around US $43,000). That’s the starting point.If you get closer to the beach, that cost per square meter is going to multiply. For example, the cost is around 3,500 Mexican pesos (US $200) per square meter in a gated-guarded community closer to the beach. So, the same lot I described in the paragraph above will cost about 8.75 million Mexican pesos, or about half a million US dollars.
(Lots available in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted April 24, 2016