Closing Costs in Quintana Roo: ISAI, Notary Fees, Registry and Predial Explained

Buying a condo in Playa del Carmen, a villa in Tulum or a plot of land on the outskirts of Cancún costs more than the number on the listing. Between signing the purchase promise and receiving the registered escritura (the notarised public deed that evidences ownership), a buyer in Quintana Roo pays a municipal acquisition tax, notary fees, Public Registry duties, an appraisal, certificates and — if the buyer is a foreign national and the property sits inside the restricted coastal zone — the federal permit and the bank fees for a fideicomiso (the Mexican bank trust through which foreigners hold coastal residential property). After that, every year, comes the predial, Mexico’s annual property tax.

This guide breaks down each of those items, names the law that creates it, gives the rates in force in the three municipalities where most Riviera Maya transactions happen, and sets out a step-by-step method so you can build your own closing budget instead of trusting a “typical percentage” that nobody can document.

What makes this different from most of what circulates about closing costs in Quintana Roo is that there are no invented numbers here. Every rate and every deadline is tied to the statute that establishes it, and wherever the amount depends on a fee schedule, on a duty that is re-indexed each year, on a bank’s own price list or on a professional quote, we say so plainly and tell you where to look it up yourself.

Key takeaways before you sign anything

• The acquisition tax — known as ISAI (Impuesto sobre Adquisición de Inmuebles) in most of Mexico and as ISABI (Impuesto sobre Adquisición de Bienes Inmuebles) in the municipal finance laws of Quintana Roo — is a municipal tax: each town hall sets its own rate in its own Ley de Hacienda. Today it is 4 % in Playa del Carmen, 4 % in Tulum and 3 % in Benito Juárez (Cancún).
• The ISABI base is not the price. It is the highest of the agreed price adjusted for inflation, the cadastral appraisal, the appraisal by a registered valuer, and the last declared value. On pre-construction purchases this detail can make closing noticeably more expensive.
• The notario público calculates and remits ISABI under his own professional liability within fifteen days of the taxable act, which is why the funds must be in place on signing day.
• Notary fees are governed by a state arancel (a binding fee tariff) published in the state’s official gazette, and they attract 16 % IVA (value added tax) like any professional service.
• Public Registry of Property and Commerce duties are fixed amounts expressed in UMA units per registrable act, notice and certificate (Ley de Derechos del Estado, art. 29) — not a percentage of the price. They are a small line next to ISABI.
• A foreign buyer in the restricted zone also pays the federal duty for the fideicomiso permit (a fixed amount under the Ley Federal de Derechos, re-indexed annually, in the order of twenty thousand pesos) plus the trustee bank’s set-up and annual fees.
• Predial is payable in advance in two-month instalments; almost every municipality rewards paying the whole year in January with a discount, which in 2026 reached 25 % in Playa del Carmen and 15 % in Cancún.
• Ask your notario for an itemised quote, line by line, before you sign the promise, and compare at least two notarías. That is the only serious way to know what your closing will cost.

What ISAI (ISABI) is and who collects it in Quintana Roo

The property acquisition tax is the levy that falls on the event of becoming an owner. In Mexico it belongs to the municipal level, and in Quintana Roo the state legislature has given the larger municipalities their own finance laws: there are specific statutes for Playa del Carmen (formerly Solidaridad), Tulum, Benito Juárez, Puerto Morelos, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Bacalar and others. The general Ley de Hacienda de los Municipios del Estado operates as the fallback for those municipalities without a bespoke law.

A recent change of names is worth flagging, because it confuses buyers reading old documents. The municipality where Playa del Carmen sits was called Solidaridad from its creation. In March 2025 the State Congress approved renaming it Municipio de Playa del Carmen, published in the official gazette that same month, with the clarification that the change affects no rights, obligations or procedures already under way. Legal texts and official forms have adopted the new name gradually, and the State Congress itself still publishes the municipal finance law under its historical name. So you will encounter title deeds, predial receipts and older documents that say “Solidaridad” and newer paperwork that says “Playa del Carmen”: they refer to the same territory, which runs from Punta Maroma and Playacar down through Puerto Aventuras to the Tulum municipal line.

Rates in force by municipality

Municipality (city)	ISABI rate	Legal basis	Note
Playa del Carmen (formerly Solidaridad)	4 %	Ley de Hacienda del Municipio de Playa del Carmen (ISABI chapter)	Raised by the decree published in the state gazette on 10-12-2025; before that reform it was 3 %
Tulum	4 %	Ley de Hacienda del Municipio de Tulum (ISABI chapter)	Consolidated text including reforms through December 2025
Benito Juárez (Cancún)	3 %	Ley de Hacienda del Municipio de Benito Juárez (ISABI chapter)	Consolidated text in force as published by the State Congress

Two practical warnings follow. First, these rates change often, and almost always upwards: within a few years two of the three municipalities have reached 4 %, with Playa del Carmen taking the last step in the December 2025 reform. If your transaction signs close to the turn of the year, ask your notario which rate applies given the date of the taxable act and the transitional articles of the relevant decree. Second, the procedure sheets, forms and online calculators published by municipal treasuries are not always updated at the same pace as the statute, so do not budget from a rate you saw on an old form. The law as published in the state’s official gazette is what governs, and the most recent consolidated text lives on the State Congress website.

The taxable base: it is not (only) the price

This is the point that surprises buyers from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom more than any other, because in all three markets transfer tax or stamp duty is normally calculated on the consideration actually paid. The finance laws of Playa del Carmen, Benito Juárez and Tulum follow a different and very similar logic among themselves: the tax base is the highest of the following.

1. The acquisition value or agreed price, indexed by the factor obtained from dividing the consumer price index of the month before the one in which payment falls due by the index of the month before the acquisition.
2. The cadastral appraisal, within the maximum age the law allows (in the order of six months from the acquisition date).
3. The appraisal carried out by a valuer authorised or registered with the competent state authority, subject to the same age limit. Some municipal laws also accept an appraisal produced by a banking institution.
4. The last value declared by the seller.

The consequences are concrete. If you bought off-plan at a price fixed two or three years before the deed, the law obliges the notario to index that price for inflation, and on top of that the appraisal at delivery will most likely reflect current market value, which is higher than the contract price. ISABI is calculated on whichever is greater. By the same token, if you negotiated an aggressive discount from a motivated seller, the tax will not fall proportionally: the appraisal sets a floor beneath the base.

The same statutes set valuation rules for the dismemberment of ownership, allocating a fraction of the total property value to bare ownership and to usufruct respectively. This matters in estate planning structures where parents keep the usufruct and transfer bare ownership to their children: each partial transfer has its own base and its own tax.

When and how it is paid

All three municipal laws set a short payment window of fifteen days counted from the day the taxable event occurs (check in your municipality’s law whether the count runs in calendar or business days). In an ordinary purchase, the taxable event crystallises when the transaction is raised to a public deed, and that is when the clock starts.

For acquisitions recorded in a deed, the law charges the notario with calculating the tax under his own responsibility, recording the calculation in the instrument and remitting it by filed return to the municipal treasury, attaching the appraisal and stating the transaction value, the cadastral value and the appraised value. This is precisely why the notario will ask you for a provisión de fondos — an advance of funds — before or on signing day: he answers to the municipality for the calculation and the payment, and he will not authorise the definitive deed without the money. The state notarial statute points the same way: a notario may decline to act when the parties fail to provide him with the costs, duties, taxes and fees, and he faces disciplinary liability if he fails to remit taxes he received for that purpose.

If payment is late, the state’s Código Fiscal Municipal requires the amount to be indexed from the month it should have been paid and adds recargos — surcharges by way of indemnity to the municipal treasury — computed month by month at the applicable surcharge rate, with a cap on the accumulation period. The municipal laws also provide for fines on late payment. Delaying the deed to “save money” is never cheap.

Special cases: fideicomiso, assignment of rights, inheritance and usufruct

The scope of the tax is broad. The municipal laws tax, among other events, the sale (including a sale with retention of title), the exchange of properties, adjudication at auction, transfer in lieu of payment, the transfer that occurs when a title-transferring trust is created, the transfer the trustee makes when performing the trust, the assignment of rights of settlors or beneficiaries of a trust, inheritance or legacy, and generally any other act by which ownership is acquired, such as a gift or acquisitive prescription.

For a foreign buyer this reads two ways. When acquiring through a fideicomiso, ISABI is triggered once, on the acquisition of the property that the bank receives as trustee for the buyer’s benefit. When you sell years later, the usual structure is that the buyer steps in as new trust beneficiary by assignment of rights, and that assignment is itself a taxable event: the incoming buyer pays ISABI even though the property “does not change registered owner”. We cover this in detail in the fideicomiso bank trust guide for foreign buyers.

Inheritance also triggers ISABI in these municipalities: the tax is computed when assets are adjudicated to the heirs or legatees, on the same highest-value base. Anyone planning to leave a condo off Quinta Avenida to their children should budget for that cost, or discuss with their adviser the appointment of substitute trust beneficiaries — available when buying through a fideicomiso — as a way of ordering the succession.

Notary fees: how the arancel works and what it covers

In Quintana Roo, the notario público is a lawyer invested with public faith who draws no salary from the state: he is remunerated by the fees he charges for each instrument, according to a state arancel de honorarios published in the official state gazette, compliance with which is mandatory for every notaría (Ley del Notariado para el Estado de Quintana Roo). The arancel is therefore the legal benchmark against which any quote should be tested.

The existence of a binding tariff does not mean every notaría charges the same for a purchase. The arancel establishes amounts and brackets by reference to the value of the act and the type of instrument; the notaría then adds items the tariff does not cover, or covers only partially — obtaining certificates and dealing with agencies, certified copies, additional testimonios, travel for signings away from the office, and translation or interpreter services when one of the parties does not speak Spanish. That is why two quotes for the same property can differ meaningfully.

We do not publish a fee table, because the arancel is updated and reading it correctly depends on the specific act involved: a straightforward sale, a sale with a trust, one with a mortgage, one with powers of attorney, or one on a condominium regime only just constituted. The responsible approach is to request the quote in writing and check that it cites the arancel currently in force.

What a notarial quote must itemise

A professional quote in the Riviera Maya separates, at minimum, these lines.

• Taxes: municipal ISABI computed on the estimated base (price or appraisal, whichever is higher), at the municipal rate.
• Duties: Public Registry of Property and Commerce (review and registration of the act, preventive notices, lien certificate), municipal Catastro (cadastral certificate or appraisal, attestations) and, where applicable, the federal duty for the fideicomiso permit.
• Notary fees under the arancel, with IVA shown separately.
• Agency and errand costs: obtaining certificates, no-debt attestations, copies, courier.
• Appraisal by the registered valuer (if the notaría arranges it), or a note that the buyer supplies it.
• Trustee bank fees for opening or accepting the appointment, if applicable, with the currency stated.

If the document lumps everything into a single global “escrituración costs” figure, ask for the breakdown. It is your right, and it is the only way to compare. In the guide to the notary process and closing in Quintana Roo we set out the order in which these payments happen and who holds the funds at each stage.

IVA on fees and agency services

Mexico’s value added tax law requires tax to be paid by those who “render independent services” and sets the general rate at 16 % (art. 1). The fees of the notario, the valuer, the gestor and any lawyer assisting you are services and carry IVA. When comparing quotes, make sure both include IVA or both exclude it; a sixteen-point difference on the fee lines distorts any comparison beyond repair.

For US, Canadian and UK buyers it is worth noting that this IVA is not recoverable for an individual buying a home. It is a real cost, not a cash-flow item, and it should sit in your budget at full value.

Public Registry duties and certificates

The deed does not fully protect the buyer until it is registered with the Public Registry of Property and Commerce of the State of Quintana Roo, a state agency headquartered in Chetumal with branch offices in the state’s principal municipal seats. The duties for its services are set out in the Ley de Derechos del Estado de Quintana Roo (art. 29, devoted to Registry services), which expresses them as fixed amounts in UMA per service, not as a percentage of the transaction value. That is the key difference from states where registration is charged ad valorem: in Quintana Roo the registration cost does not grow in proportion to the price. What moves the amount is the number of acts, notices and certificates, not the value of the property. The services that appear in an ordinary purchase are these.

Registry service (Ley de Derechos QRoo, art. 29)	How it is charged	When it appears in your transaction
Analysis and review of documents containing registrable acts, and registration	Fixed UMA amount per act or legal transaction	On filing the deed; this is the principal item
Entry of preventive notices (first and second notice)	Fixed UMA amount per notice	The notario files them before and after signing to protect priority
Certificate of freedom from, or existence of, liens	Fixed UMA amount per certificate	During due diligence and, refreshed, for signing
Certificate of information or data from the registry system (by name or by folio)	Fixed UMA amount, with variations by branch office	To confirm ownership and chain of title
Certified copies of entries or documents	Fixed UMA amount per page	When registry antecedents of the title are needed
Property registry alerts by electronic folio	Fixed UMA amount per validity period	Optional service well worth contracting after registration

Three observations. First, the charge is per act and per service. A purchase with a mortgage is two registrable acts; a purchase in favour of a trust may involve additional entries depending on how the instrument is structured. Ask your notario how many acts he will register and have him show each one in the quote with its UMA amount and its peso equivalent. Second, the UMA — the Unidad de Medida y Actualización — is the reference unit used by Quintana Roo’s state and municipal tax laws. Its daily value is published by INEGI each January and takes effect on 1 February, so the peso amounts change every year even when the UMA-denominated tariff is untouched. To convert, multiply the UMA figure by the daily value in force. Third, the registry alert service is a cheap tool that notifies the new owner if anyone attempts to register an act against their folio; it is worth contracting, particularly if you will be living outside Mexico for most of the year.

Taken together, the registry duties on an ordinary residential purchase come to a few thousand pesos: a minor fraction of the closing budget which nonetheless has to be available up front, because the Registry will not process the document without payment of duties.

Lien certificates and the attestations of ownership or non-ownership are requested during title due diligence and the public registry review, before signing; the preventive notice is filed by the notario to “freeze” the registry position while the deed is signed and recorded.

The appraisal: who prepares it, how long it lasts, why it matters

The appraisal serves two tax functions. It is one of the references that define the ISABI base, and it is the document the notario must attach to the tax return. The municipal laws require it to be carried out by a valuer authorised or registered with the competent state authority for tax purposes, and to be no older than a stated maximum at the acquisition date; some also accept an appraisal by a banking institution. The state register of valuers is maintained by the State Government, and the currency of a valuer’s authorisation can and should be checked before commissioning the work.

The valuer’s fee is not fixed by statute; it depends on the value, the location and the complexity of the property. Ask for it quoted separately and verify two things: that the valuer is current in the state register, and that the appraisal date leaves enough margin for signing. An appraisal that “expires” because the developer delays delivery means paying for a second one.

Cadastral appraisals are carried out by the municipal Catastro department (or, failing that, by the state cadastral authority), and the municipal law gives them a limited validity, which lapses sooner if there are changes to buildings or works that alter the value. That appraisal or cadastral certificate is obtained from municipal Catastro and also generates duties, which the notario includes in the quote under municipal duties.

For buyers coming from markets where a lender’s valuation and a tax valuation are the same document, it is worth separating the two ideas. A bank appraisal obtained for a mortgage serves a lending purpose; the fiscal appraisal serves the ISABI calculation. Depending on the municipal law and the lender, one document may satisfy both, but do not assume it. Ask before paying twice — or before discovering, on signing day, that the document you have does not qualify.

IVA on the purchase itself: when it applies and when it does not

Many buyers ask whether the price of a new condo “includes IVA”. Mexico’s value added tax law exempts the transfer of land (art. 9, section I) and of “constructions attached to the land, intended for or used as a dwelling” (art. 9, section II), specifying that “when only part of the constructions is used or intended as a dwelling, tax shall not be paid on that part”, and that “hotels are not included in this section”.

In practice, in the Riviera Maya, this means the following.

• A condo or house intended as a dwelling attracts no IVA on the sale, neither on the land nor on the construction.
• Undeveloped land attracts no IVA.
• A commercial unit, an office or a non-residential construction does attract 16 % IVA on the construction element (the land remains exempt). This affects anyone buying a retail unit on Quinta Avenida or in Aldea Zama to lease to a business.
• Projects sold as “condo-hotels” or with mandatory hotel operation require analysis. The exemption protects dwellings and expressly excludes hotels; the classification depends on how the unit is used, how the developer invoices, and what criteria the tax authority applies. Before signing a pre-construction contract of this type, ask the developer for the price breakdown in the CFDI (electronic invoice) between land, construction and IVA charged, and take it to an accountant.

The services connected to the transaction — fees, agency work, appraisal, trustee bank commissions, and the real estate commission where the buyer pays it — do carry IVA, as explained above.

Fideicomiso costs for foreign buyers

Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cancún all sit within the fifty-kilometre coastal strip that the Constitution (art. 27, section I) reserves to Mexican nationals, the so-called restricted zone. A foreign individual acquires rights over residential property in that zone through a trust with a Mexican bank, which requires a permit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores or SRE (Ley de Inversión Extranjera, art. 11). The trust runs for a maximum of fifty years, renewable on application (art. 13), and the SRE must decide the application within five business days when it is filed with the central unit, the permit being deemed granted if no decision issues (art. 14). The SRE processes these applications through its online system and, in practice, the banks’ trust officers handle the filing.

The associated costs fall into three categories.

1. Federal duty for the permit. The Ley Federal de Derechos (art. 25, section V) sets a fixed amount for the permit to create the trusts referred to in article 11 of the Ley de Inversión Extranjera, and a second, smaller amount for modifying a permit already granted (extending its subject matter, duration or purposes). The amounts are updated annually for inflation and are published in Annex 19 of the Resolución Miscelánea Fiscal and in the SRE’s procedure sheet; in recent fiscal years the constitution permit has run in the order of twenty thousand pesos. Verify the exact amount in force on the date of the application, because the trustee bank usually asks for it in advance.
2. Trustee bank fees. Each institution charges a commission for reviewing the file and accepting the appointment (at the outset), and an annual administration fee for as long as the trust remains in force, plus fees for assignments, substitutions of beneficiaries and termination. There is no statutory tariff: these are market prices, published in the bank’s fee schedule and often quoted in US dollars. Ask for the full schedule before choosing a bank; the cheapest at set-up is not always the cheapest over ten years.
3. Additional notary fees. The instrument containing both the purchase and the trust is longer and more complex than a plain sale, and the bank’s trust officer intervenes. The arancel and the notaría reflect that complexity.

On ISABI there is no double charge: the acquisition is taxed once. And if you choose to acquire through a Mexican company instead of a trust, you swap bank costs for the costs of incorporating and maintaining a company, plus obligations before the SRE and the foreign investment registry; each structure has its own recurring cost profile, which we compare in the guide to buying property in Mexico as a foreigner.

A note for readers filing tax at home. Nothing in this guide addresses how a fideicomiso, its costs or the underlying property are treated by the IRS, the Canada Revenue Agency or HM Revenue & Customs. Reporting obligations for foreign holdings, and the availability of foreign tax credits for Mexican taxes paid, are questions for a cross-border adviser in your own country, and they should be asked before you close, not after.

Predial: the recurring cost you inherit on purchase

Predial is the annual tax on the ownership or possession of land and buildings, also municipal. It matters to the buyer for two reasons: it becomes your obligation from the day you acquire, and any arrears left by the seller block the deed, because the notario must demonstrate to the treasury, alongside the ISABI return, that predial on the property is up to date.

Buyers used to US property taxes should recalibrate their expectations here. Predial in Quintana Roo is computed on cadastral values, which sit well below market value, and the resulting annual bill on a residential condo is typically a small fraction of what an equivalent property would cost in Florida, Ontario or the south of England. That is genuinely good news — but it should not tempt you into ignoring the item, because the discounts, the arrears rules and the post-purchase revaluation all carry practical consequences.

Base, tariff and payment calendar

The predial base is defined by each municipal law from the cadastral value of the property, which the authority may contrast against other reference values — bank appraisals, taxpayer declarations, or the value implied by the rent the property produces — applying the highest. In condominiums, each private unit has its own predial account and its own value. The tariff is set by the municipal law itself and updated with the annual revenue law; we do not reproduce it, because it changes and because the calculation is performed by the treasury using the cadastral value attached to your specific predial account.

Payment is organised in two-month instalments, though the usual practice is to settle the full year in January to capture the discount. One point worth anticipating at purchase: after the transfer of ownership, the value declared on acquisition normally feeds into the cadastral value of the account, so predial in the following year can be appreciably higher than what the seller was paying. Request an updated account statement after registration and, if you buy in the first months of the year, agree in the promise who bears predial for the current year.

Early-payment discounts in 2026

Municipal laws empower town halls to grant discounts for advance annual payment, tiered by date, and an enhanced discount for senior citizens, pensioners, retirees and people with disabilities, limited to a single property that is their home and to a cadastral value cap expressed in UMA. The specific percentages, dates and caps are set by each council for each fiscal year and announced in December or the first days of January.

What the town halls actually applied in 2026, per their official announcements:

Municipality	General 2026 discount	Groups with 50 % discount
Playa del Carmen	25 % from 1 to 15 January; 15 % from 16 to 31 January; 10 % from 1 to 28 February. Waiver of surcharges from prior years (100 % for 2023-2025, 75 % for 2020-2022, 50 % for 2019 and earlier) until 28 February	Senior citizens, people with disabilities, retirees and pensioners, until 30 June, one residential property with cadastral value up to 25,000 UMA
Benito Juárez (Cancún)	15 % until 21 January; 10 % from 22 January to 15 February; 5 % from 16 February to 15 March	People with disabilities, pensioners, retirees and senior citizens, throughout the year, subject to requirements
Tulum	The municipal law empowers the council to grant tiered advance-payment discounts, which the treasury usually applies between January and March; consult the current year’s council resolution, since we do not publish percentages we have not been able to verify	Vulnerable groups (senior citizens, people with disabilities, pensioners and retirees) on the terms set by the year’s council resolution

The 2027 percentages will be approved in December 2026 and may vary. The practical rule does not change: paying in the first half of January is, year after year, the best financial decision available on predial, and the digital platforms of all three municipalities allow you to do it from abroad by card or transfer.

Seller arrears and the no-debt certificate

Beyond the predial receipt, notarial practice in the Riviera Maya attaches to the ISABI return a set of no-debt attestations for other municipal contributions (such as betterment levies or public-works contributions) and, for properties adjoining the Federal Maritime-Terrestrial Zone, the documentation relating to the ZOFEMAT concession — the federal beach strip concession — and the payment of its duties, which in beachfront condominiums is apportioned among the private units. These documents take time; ask the seller for them from the moment you sign the promise. We go deeper in the beachfront property and ZOFEMAT guide.

Other items that show up at closing

They are neither taxes nor duties, but they come out of the same pocket in the same week.

• Escrow. If the price is deposited with a third party until signing, the provider charges a set-up commission and sometimes transfer fees. How it works and what to avoid is covered in the escrow and safe payments guide.
• Initial condominium fees. Many developments require a reserve fund or constitution contribution on handover, plus the ordinary fee for the first period. These should be in the condominium rules; see the condominium regime and HOA fees guide.
• Mortgage costs. If you finance, add the arrangement fee, the lender’s appraisal, insurance, and registration of the mortgage as an additional act at the Public Registry. Details are in the mortgages and financing for foreigners guide.
• Utility connections. Transfers of account with CFE (the national electricity utility) and the local water operator, plus deposits for gas and telecoms in new developments.
• Translation and powers of attorney. If you sign through an attorney-in-fact from abroad, the power must be apostilled or legalised and then protocolised in Mexico, with costs for the foreign notary, the apostille, the translation and the protocolisation. For US, Canadian and UK signatories this is routine — all three are parties to the Hague Apostille Convention — but it takes calendar days you must plan for.
• Independent legal and accounting advice. A lawyer to review the contract, and an accountant to register you with the RFC (the Mexican taxpayer registry) when you intend to rent the property out, are costs that pay for themselves on the first problem they prevent.

An illustrative example: building your own budget

The following exercise is illustrative. It uses round numbers to show the calculation method, not to predict your closing. Assume a completed residential condo in Playa del Carmen, bought by a foreign national through a fideicomiso, with an agreed price of 5,000,000 pesos and a registered valuer’s appraisal of 5,200,000 pesos.

Item	How it is determined	Illustrative amount
ISABI Playa del Carmen	4 % on the highest base (here, the appraisal of 5,200,000)	208,000 pesos
Registry duties: review and registration, one act	Fixed UMA amount (Ley de Derechos QRoo, art. 29) × current UMA value	A few thousand pesos; the notario itemises it
Registry duties: preventive notices and lien certificate	Fixed UMA amounts per notice and per certificate	Hundreds to a few thousand pesos; the notario itemises it
Federal duty, SRE fideicomiso permit	Fixed amount, LFD art. 25, section V, updated annually	In the order of 20,000 pesos (indicative; confirm the current figure)
Catastro duties (cadastral certificate or appraisal, attestations)	Municipal tariff in force	Per the treasury
Registered valuer’s appraisal	Valuer’s quote + IVA	Per quote
Notary fees + 16 % IVA	State arancel + notaría items	Per the notarial quote
Notarial agency work (certificates, copies, filings)	Notarial quote	Per the notarial quote
Trustee bank: acceptance of appointment	Bank’s fee schedule + IVA	Per the bank
Trustee bank: first annual fee	Bank’s fee schedule + IVA	Per the bank
Reserve fund and first condominium fee	Condominium rules	Per the rules

On ISABI alone the example already stands at 208,000 pesos, that is 4.16 % of the agreed price — because the base was the appraisal, not the price. Adding the federal SRE duty and the registry duties, both fixed amounts, the “set by law” block approaches 4.7 % of the price, before notary fees, appraisal, bank commissions and condominium contributions. That is what the “total percentages” circulating in the market really are: not official figures, but the sum of a fixed part (tax and duties) and a variable part (arancel, bank, valuer) that you only know once you have quotes in hand. If the same condo were in Cancún, the ISABI line would drop to 156,000 pesos (3 %); if it were a plot of land in Tulum bought by a Mexican national without a trust, the SRE and bank lines would disappear entirely.

Run the same exercise on your own property: price and likely appraisal, municipal rate, number of acts to register, and then ask the notario and the bank to fill in the missing lines. Our team can help coordinate those quotes; get in touch with the property details.

Practical differences: Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cancún

The three markets share the state framework (Public Registry, notarial law, registered valuers, Código Fiscal Municipal) and the federal one (IVA, income tax, the trust regime), but diverge at municipal level.

Playa del Carmen. ISABI at 4 % since the December 2025 reform, a base with inflation indexing of the price and an authorised valuer’s appraisal, payment through the notario at the municipal treasury. Predial with discounts of up to 25 % in the first half of January (as applied in 2026), and particular attention to ZOFEMAT attestations for properties adjoining the beach — relevant in Playacar, the northern hotel stretch off Quinta Avenida, and Punta Maroma. This is the market with the deepest condo inventory; you can browse condos for sale in Playa del Carmen and use asking prices as the starting point for the exercise above.

Tulum. A 4 % rate under its Ley de Hacienda in force, with taxable-base rules equivalent to those of its neighbours. A large share of supply in Aldea Zama, La Veleta, Región 15 and around Tulum Country Club is pre-construction, which makes the price-indexing mechanism and the appraisal at delivery unusually important here. The municipality’s connectivity through Felipe Carrillo Puerto international airport and the Tren Maya has pushed cadastral reference values up sharply in a few years.

Cancún (Benito Juárez). A 3 % rate, the lowest of the three, with the same payment structure through the notario within the statutory window, and surcharges and fines if paid late. Predial with tiered discounts from January to mid-March (in 2026: 15 %, 10 % and 5 %) and a well-established digital payment platform. The market blends vertical housing in Puerto Cancún, Malecón Américas and the Avenida Huayacán corridor with residential lots in southern developments; that one-percentage-point ISABI advantage over Playa del Carmen and Tulum is an argument Cancún sellers already deploy.

Puerto Morelos, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres and Bacalar have their own finance laws, with rates and bases that need checking case by case. Do not assume they mirror their neighbours.

Where to verify the current amounts yourself

Almost every figure in this guide moves with the calendar: municipal rates with each reform, federal duties every January, the UMA every February, and predial discounts every fiscal year. Before accepting a number as correct — even one from a notario or a developer — it helps to know where the primary source lives.

• ISABI rate and base. The consolidated text of each municipality’s Ley de Hacienda is published on the Quintana Roo State Congress website, with the date of the last reform in the header. Find the chapter on the Impuesto sobre Adquisición de Bienes Inmuebles and check the rate and the definition of the base; if the decree is recent, read the transitional articles too, which say from when it applies.
• Registry and cadastral duties. The Ley de Derechos del Estado (Public Registry of Property and Commerce services) and the relevant municipal finance law (Catastro services). Both express amounts in UMA.
• UMA value. Published by INEGI each January, taking effect on 1 February; the official INEGI page shows the daily, monthly and annual values in force.
• Federal duty for the fideicomiso permit. The updated amount appears each year in Annex 19 of the Resolución Miscelánea Fiscal, published in the federal official gazette, and in the procedure sheet on the SRE portal.
• Predial discounts. The announcements and payment portals of the treasuries of Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Benito Juárez publish the percentages and dates for the year each December or January.
• Notarial arancel. The fee tariff in force is published in the state’s official gazette; any notaría should be able to tell you the publication date of the one applied to your quote.

With those six sources to hand, a buyer can audit a closing budget line by line in an afternoon. It is exactly what we do before presenting a quote to our own clients, and what we recommend doing with anyone else’s.

How to request quotes and compare notarías

In most transactions between private parties the buyer chooses the notario; in pre-construction the developer usually proposes one, but this can be negotiated. To obtain comparable quotes, follow these steps.

1. Give every notaría the same data: exact location and cadastral key, agreed price, current cadastral value, property type (residential, land, commercial), whether there will be a trust or a company, whether there will be a mortgage, the nationality and marital status of the buyers, and whether anyone will sign by power of attorney.
2. Ask for the line-by-line breakdown described above, showing the ISABI base they are using and the reference to the arancel in force for the fee lines.
3. Ask how many acts they will register with the Public Registry and how many testimonios they will deliver.
4. Ask about timing: when they need the provision of funds, when they pay ISABI, when they file the deed with the Registry, and when they expect to deliver the registered testimonio.
5. Clarify what happens if signing is delayed: who bears the cost of renewing an expired appraisal or certificates.
6. Verify the notaría in the State Government’s official directory of notaries (under the Secretaría de Gobierno) and ask to speak with the titular notario, not only with the gestor handling errands.

A 20 % difference in fees between two notarías is normal; a difference in ISABI is not, because the tax is the same. If two quotes show different ISABI figures, they are using different bases: one of them has probably left out the appraisal or the inflation indexing.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

• Budgeting ISABI on the price. The appraisal or the inflation indexing can lift the base. Ask the valuer for an early estimate.
• Letting the appraisal or the lien certificate expire. Both have a short shelf life (the law sets the appraisal a maximum age in the order of six months). Coordinate dates with the real delivery of the property, not the promised one.
• Ignoring the assignment of trust rights. Buying “the trust rights” from another foreign owner is an ISABI-taxable event and requires the bank’s involvement; it is not a tax shortcut.
• Underestimating the seller’s predial arrears. No current receipt, no deed. Ask for the predial account statement at the promise stage and agree who clears any debt.
• Confusing the developer’s “escrituración costs” with the total. Some pre-construction contracts state an estimated amount; the definitive figure emerges with the appraisal at delivery. Insist the contract explains how it is adjusted.
• Forgetting IVA on services. Fees, agency work, valuer and bank all attract it.
• Not contracting registry alerts. For a fixed annual UMA amount, the Registry notifies you of movements on your folio.
• Assuming the buyer bears every item. The seller’s income tax on the gain is calculated and remitted by the notario for the seller’s account (Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta, art. 126), and the real estate commission is agreed by whoever engaged the adviser. If a seller tries to pass their income tax to you “in the price”, you need to know in order to negotiate; we set this out in the guide to taxes when selling property in Mexico.
• Signing without a payment timeline. Know what you pay at the promise, what at signing, and what afterwards (the bank’s annual fee, next year’s predial, condominium contributions).

Frequently asked questions

Are ISAI and ISABI the same thing? Yes. ISAI (Impuesto sobre Adquisición de Inmuebles) is the generic name used across much of the country; the municipal finance laws of Quintana Roo call it Impuesto sobre Adquisición de Bienes Inmuebles, which is why you will see the initials ISABI on returns and receipts issued by the treasuries of Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cancún.

What is the ISABI rate in Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cancún? Playa del Carmen: 4 % since the reform to its Ley de Hacienda published on 10 December 2025. Tulum: 4 % under its Ley de Hacienda in force. Benito Juárez, where Cancún sits: 3 %. Verify the rate in force on the date you sign.

Is ISABI calculated on the purchase price? It is calculated on the highest of the inflation-indexed price, the cadastral appraisal, the authorised valuer’s appraisal (both within the maximum age the law allows) and the last declared value. If the appraisal exceeds the price, the tax is paid on the appraisal.

Who pays ISABI and when? The acquirer, within fifteen days of the taxable act. In public deeds, the notario calculates it, records it in the instrument and remits it to the municipal treasury under his own responsibility, which is why he will ask you for the funds on signing day.

How much does the SRE permit for a fideicomiso cost? It is a fixed amount under the Ley Federal de Derechos (art. 25, section V), updated annually, which in recent fiscal years has run in the order of twenty thousand pesos; the exact current figure appears in the SRE’s procedure sheet and in Annex 19 of the Resolución Miscelánea Fiscal. The trustee bank’s fees are additional and each institution sets them in its own schedule.

How much does it cost to register the deed with the Quintana Roo Public Registry? The Ley de Derechos del Estado (art. 29) sets fixed UMA amounts for reviewing and registering each act, for each preventive notice and for each certificate, unrelated to the price of the property. On a single-act residential purchase they come to a few thousand pesos, plus the notarial agency work; the notario must itemise them in the quote with their peso equivalent at the UMA value in force.

What discounts apply to predial if I pay in January? In 2026 Playa del Carmen applied 25 % from 1 to 15 January, 15 % from 16 to 31 January and 10 % in February; Cancún applied 15 % until 21 January, 10 % until 15 February and 5 % until 15 March; in Tulum the percentages are set each year by the council, so consult the current resolution. Vulnerable groups (senior citizens, pensioners, retirees, people with disabilities) qualify for 50 % subject to requirements. Percentages are approved each December for the following year.

Does a new condo pay IVA? If it is intended as a dwelling, no: the IVA law exempts land and constructions intended for housing (art. 9, sections I and II). Commercial units and non-residential constructions do pay 16 % on the construction element, and hotel-operation schemes require specific analysis.

Can I pay closing costs from abroad? Yes. The notario gives you the account for the provision of funds and issues a receipt; predial is paid on the municipal digital platforms, and the trustee bank collects its annual fees by transfer or card charge. Keep every receipt: the ISABI and duty receipts will form part of your proven acquisition cost when you sell.

When you have a specific property in view, browse our properties for sale in the Riviera Maya and request the itemised closing budget before committing a deposit. Closing properly costs what it costs; closing badly costs a great deal more.