Bank Trust in Mexico

Yes! You can own property in Mexico,

 And we are here to help you make the process easy and understandable. We will be with you step-by-step and introduce you to all the people and resources.

Not All Realtors® have the experience or qualifications to sell real estate in Mexico. Each member of our team has more than 14 years real estate experience, we have represented hundreds of property owners on selling, buying, investing ventures. Our expericence combined with our recomended legal advisors can help you find the perfect investment in Playa del Carmen and the Riviera Maya.

Restricted Zone
In the interior of Mexico, you can buy property “fee simple” in your own name, just as you would in the United States or Canada. But Mexican law has special exceptions governing property within 31 miles of the coast and within 62 miles of the border, an area known as the Restricted Zone. Most of the properties shown on this site are located within this zone

A fide­icomiso ( Bank trust) is a three-party con­tract by means of which the seller (settlor/fideicomitente) irrev­o­ca­bly trans­fers to a bank (trustee/fiduciario) real prop­erty so that a third party (beneficiary/fideicomisario) can use and enjoy such real prop­erty. The trans­fer of the real prop­erty from the seller to the bank is a def­i­nite and irrev­o­ca­ble trans­fer of title. Under Mex­i­can law only an autho­rized Mex­i­can bank­ing insti­tu­tion can be a trustee.The bank acquires title to the real prop­erty and is oblig­ated to allow the ben­e­fi­ciary to use and enjoy the prop­erty as he sees fit (as long as the man­ner in which he or she does so is law­ful) The Ben­e­fi­cia­ries have the right to sell/Rent the prop­erty when they please and to receive the ben­e­fits pro­duced by such sale/rent.

The bank can­not encum­ber or sell the prop­erty with­out the express writ­ten con­sent of the beneficiary.

Mex­i­can law requires that all real prop­erty trans­ac­tions be done by a Notary Pub­lic. The Notary is oblig­ated to reg­is­ter in his books the deed of trans­fer of title, have it signed by the par­ties involved and have it recorded in the Pub­lic Reg­istry of Prop­erty that cor­re­sponds to the loca­tion of the prop­erty. Once the deed of trans­fer of title is signed in the pres­ence of the Notary and reg­is­tered with the Pub­lic Reg­istry of Prop­erty, the real prop­erty trans­ac­tion has ful­filled the require­ments of Mex­i­can law.

The deed of trans­fer of title is reg­is­tered in the Notary´s books as well as with the Pub­lic Reg­istry of Prop­erty and will con­tain the entire trust agree­ment and is the doc­u­ment that will prove that you have rights to a cer­tain piece of real prop­erty. Once the deed has been reg­is­tered with the Pub­lic Reg­istry of Prop­erty, the first deed of title goes to the bank and the sec­ond deed of title is given to the buyer/beneficiary.

If you need to ver­ify to author­i­ties out­side Mex­ico that you have invested in a for­eign coun­try, an “apos­tilled” or “legal­ized” copy of your deed of trust will be sufficient.

The For­eign Invest­ment Law per­mits trusts for up to 50 years, and such per­mits can be renewed.

Besides the above, some of the gen­eral terms of the con­tract of fide­icomiso are as follows:

1. There can be more than one fide­icomis­ario (ben­e­fi­ciary). If more than one fide­icomis­ario is des­ig­nated, each will be co-beneficiaries of the prop­erty held in trust (unless oth­er­wise established).

2. Sub­sti­tute ben­e­fi­cia­ries or “fide­icomis­ar­ios susti­tu­tos” will need to be des­ig­nated. Sub­sti­tute ben­e­fi­cia­ries are usu­ally fam­ily mem­bers and will only have the right to par­tic­i­pate in the trust once all of the first ben­e­fi­cia­ries have passed away (unless oth­er­wise established).

3. If the prop­erty held in trust is unimproved land and larger than 2,000 square meters, the Min­istry of For­eign Affairs will require that the ben­e­fi­cia­ries sign a let­ter promis­ing to invest in the land a cer­tain amount of money over a 24 month period. The amount of money that will need to be invested will be deter­mined by the loca­tion of the prop­erty and its size.

Acquir­ing prop­erty in the restricted zone using a corporation:

As of 1995 for­eign­ers can fully own, oper­ate and admin­is­ter Mex­i­can cor­po­ra­tions. There remain some restric­tions on the activ­i­ties that a Mex­i­can cor­po­ra­tion can par­tic­i­pate in when for­eign­ers are involved such as min­ing, air­ports, and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions; how­ever, the gen­eral rule is 100% par­tic­i­pa­tion. There are no invest­ment restric­tions on foreign-owned Mex­i­can cor­po­ra­tions aimed at buy­ing and devel­op­ing property.

Mex­i­can cor­po­ra­tions require a min­i­mum of two asso­ciates or share­hold­ers. Both share­hold­ers can be for­eign­ers, and there is no need to have a Mex­i­can partner.

There are sev­eral dif­fer­ent types of Mex­i­can cor­po­ra­tions, how­ever the two most com­mon are the S.A. de C.V. and the S. de R.L. de C.V. The S.A. de C.V. is a lim­ited lia­bil­ity cor­po­ra­tion of shares and the S. de R.L. de C.V. resem­bles a lim­ited lia­bil­ity part­ner­ship. Choos­ing which type of cor­po­ra­tion to set up is impor­tant for tax pur­poses in both the US and Mex­ico, and you should speak with an attor­ney or accoun­tant on both sides of the bor­der to under­stand the ben­e­fits and costs each one entails. Mak­ing sure these things are done cor­rectly from the begin­ning will, with­out a doubt, save you time and money.

The Mex­i­can legal sys­tem is a very “for­mal” sys­tem in that there are “forms or pro­ce­dures” that must be fol­lowed in order for cer­tain types of doc­u­ments and trans­ac­tions to be con­sid­ered valid. This holds true with set­ting up a Mex­i­can cor­po­ra­tion. If the “forms and pro­ce­dures” are not done prop­erly, the lim­ited lia­bil­ity nature of these cor­po­ra­tions can be defeated and the share­hold­ers or part­ners could be held jointly and unlim­it­edly liable.

Once your Mex­i­can cor­po­ra­tion is formed, it has the legal capac­ity to acquire prop­erty any­where in Mex­ico, includ­ing the restricted zone. Acquir­ing prop­erty is also a “for­mal” pro­ce­dure and you need to make sure all of the proper steps are done to secure title.

Legal disclaimer

The materials on this website and the opinions and answers provided are for informational purposes only, do not constitute and should not be relied upon as legal advice, and are not guaranteed to be correct, complete or up-to-date. Any informational items of a legal nature on this website or offered via reply email or postings are not to be construed as advertising or legal advice, but merely as a public service to the visitors of this website.