Buying a house in Mexico: the restricted zone, the fideicomiso and the acquisition tax per state
Within a hundred kilometres of the border and fifty kilometres of the coast a foreigner may not own land in Mexico. You buy there through a fideicomiso: a bank holds the title, you have the use, the right of sale and of inheritance, fifty years and renewable. Outside that you buy in your own name, after a declaration at Foreign Affairs. Everywhere you pay the acquisition tax of the state, from 2 to 4.5 percent.
Buying in Mexico is legally simpler than it sounds and on the coast different from everywhere else. One article of the constitution decides which of the two routes you walk.
The restricted zone
Article 27 of the Mexican constitution forbids foreigners the direct ownership of land within a hundred kilometres of the land borders and fifty kilometres of the coast — the zona restringida. That is exactly where most Dutch people want to live: the Riviera Maya, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Mazatlán, the coast of Oaxaca.
Buying there is possible, though, through a fideicomiso: a Mexican bank holds the title as trustee, and you are the beneficiary with the full use, the right of letting, sale and inheritance. The construction is valid fifty years and renewable. The bank applies for a permit from Foreign Affairs, the SRE; the fees are in article 25 of the Ley Federal de Derechos, 19,952.46 pesos, and the SRE decides within five working days. On top come the bank's set-up costs and an annual fee — count on a few hundred euros a year, as long as the fideicomiso runs.
Whoever takes over an existing fideicomiso pays the transfer and not the set-up; ask the seller what is running.
Outside the zone: in your own name
On the highlands — Querétaro, San Miguel de Allende, Guadalajara, Lake Chapala, Mexico City — you buy in your own name. The only extra step is the declaration at Foreign Affairs that in respect of the property you behave as a Mexican and in disputes make no appeal to your own government: the convenio de renuncia, 4,840.48 pesos in fees. The notary arranges it as part of the deed.
What it costs
The buyer pays the acquisition tax of the state — the ISAI — on the highest of three values: the purchase price, the cadastral value and the appraisal. The rate differs per state: 2 percent in Yucatán, 2.5 in Guanajuato and Nayarit, 2.8 in Baja California, 3 in Jalisco, Quintana Roo, Baja California Sur and Oaxaca, 4.5 in Mexico City. On top the notary, the appraisal and the entry in the public register. All together between 5 and 9 percent, and on the coast the bank as well.
The notary in Mexico is a public official who executes the deed and withholds the taxes, not your adviser. Take a lawyer of your own who examines the title: the question whether the seller really is the owner and the plot isn't ejido land — collective land that isn't freely saleable — comes before everything.
The mortgage
Mexican banks rarely finance foreigners and at rates a Dutch person doesn't know. Almost every Dutch buyer buys with their own money, and that is also the reason buying with Mexico is a step in phase 5 and not in phase 1: first get to know the country, only then lock up the capital.
And the tax on what you buy
With property the tax treaty doesn't follow your place of residence but the bricks: income from immovable property may be taxed in the state where that property lies. That's in article 6. A property in Mexico — also through a fideicomiso — is taxed there, and a home you keep in the Netherlands stays taxed in the Netherlands. On a sale in Mexico you pay on the gain, with an exemption for the own home that hangs on conditions. And the home in the Netherlands has with Mexico a second consequence: it can decide whether under Mexican law you are a resident at all — see the article on AOW, pension and tax.
What this rests on
The facts in this article come from these official pages. Rules change — when in doubt the source is leading, not this article.
- SRE — the permit for a fideicomiso in the restricted zone — sre.gob.mx
- Ley Federal de Derechos, article 25 — the fees for the fideicomiso permit and the declaration outside the zone — leyes-mx.com
- Colegio Nacional de Fedatarios Públicos — the acquisition tax per state in 2026 — fedatariospublicos.org.mx
- Wetten.overheid.nl — the treaty with Mexico (1993), article 6 on immovable property — wetten.overheid.nl
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