Fideicomiso Bank Trust: How Foreign Buyers Own Property in Playa del Carmen

If you are American, Canadian or British and you want to buy a condo in Playa del Carmen, a villa in Tulum or an apartment in Cancun’s hotel zone, one Spanish word will come up before any other: fideicomiso (a bank trust). The entire coastline of Quintana Roo sits inside the restricted zone defined by the Mexican Constitution, and the fideicomiso is the legal vehicle that lets a foreign national acquire, use, rent out, pass on and sell a home inside that coastal strip with full legal certainty.

This guide is written from the closing table in the Riviera Maya, not from a bank brochure. It explains exactly what the law says, who is who inside the contract, how the permit is processed at the Mexican Foreign Ministry, what it costs to open and maintain the trust, how your heirs are protected through substitute beneficiaries, which taxes are triggered at each step, and the mistakes we watch buyers repeat purchase after purchase.

What separates this from most of the material circulating in English online is that every legal statement here traces back to a verifiable article of the Foreign Investment Law, its Regulations, the General Law of Negotiable Instruments and Credit Transactions, the Credit Institutions Law, the Federal Tax Code, the Income Tax Law and the revenue laws of the Quintana Roo municipalities. Where market figures are discussed that do not appear in any statute, we say so plainly and treat them as illustrative examples.

The two-minute version: what a fideicomiso actually is

• What it is: a contract under which an authorised Mexican bank (the fiduciaria, or trustee) takes title to a property in order to hold and administer it for the benefit of a foreign national (the fideicomisario, or beneficiary), who keeps every economic right: occupancy, enjoyment, rental income, capital appreciation and the power to sell.
• Why it exists: article 27, section I, of the Constitution prohibits foreigners from acquiring direct dominion over land and water within 100 km of the borders and 50 km of the coastline. Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Cancun, Puerto Morelos, Akumal, Puerto Aventuras, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres and Bacalar are all inside that strip.
• Legal basis: Foreign Investment Law (LIE), articles 11 to 14; Regulations to the LIE, articles 5 to 12; General Law of Negotiable Instruments and Credit Transactions (LGTOC), articles 381 to 394.
• Term: a maximum of 50 years, renewable at the interested party’s request (LIE art. 13).
• Permit: the bank applies to the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE, the Foreign Ministry) electronically; the law gives the central office five business days to resolve (LIE art. 14).
• Costs: federal permit fees (Federal Fees Law art. 25), bank fees for accepting the trust and for annual administration, notario fees and registry duties, plus the municipal property acquisition tax.
• Inheritance: you name substitute beneficiaries in the contract; on your death they acquire the rights without probate over the property.
• Resale: you can assign your beneficiary rights to another foreigner, instruct the bank to transfer title to a Mexican buyer, or sell to a buyer who sets up their own trust.
• Tax: the fideicomiso eliminates no taxes. Municipal ISAI, annual predial, income tax on rents and income tax on the sale all apply exactly as they would to any owner.

What a fideicomiso is and why the restricted zone exists

The starting point is constitutional. Article 27, section I, provides that only Mexicans by birth or naturalisation and Mexican corporations have the right to acquire dominion over land and water. The State may grant the same right to foreigners who agree before the Foreign Ministry to consider themselves Mexican nationals with respect to those assets — but the same section slams the door along the coast: within “a strip of one hundred kilometres along the borders and fifty along the beaches, under no circumstances may foreigners acquire direct dominion over land and water.”

The Foreign Investment Law picks up that strip under the name zona restringida, or restricted zone (LIE art. 2, section VI), and builds the legal way through it in Title Two, Chapter II, headed precisely “On Trusts over Real Estate in the Restricted Zone”. Article 11 provides that a permit from the SRE is required for credit institutions to acquire, as trustees, rights over real estate located in the restricted zone when the purpose of the trust is to allow the use and enjoyment of those assets without creating real property rights over them, and the beneficiaries are foreign individuals or entities, or Mexican companies without a foreigner-exclusion clause buying for residential purposes.

The operative word is aprovechamiento, or beneficial use. Article 12 of the LIE defines it broadly: the rights to the use or enjoyment of real property, “including, where applicable, the obtaining of fruits, products and, in general, any yield resulting from the operation and profitable exploitation” of the asset. In plain English, a foreign beneficiary can live in the property, renovate it, rent it short term or long term, pledge the beneficial rights if a lender will accept them, and keep the capital gain on sale. The only thing you do not have is your name in the owner’s slot of the public registry folio: that slot belongs to the trustee bank.

Three things a fideicomiso is not

It is worth dismantling three misconceptions we hear constantly from buyers arriving from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

• It is not a 50-year lease. Under a lease, the landlord takes the asset back at the end of the term. Under a fideicomiso the property stays dedicated to your benefit and the term is extended. The appreciation is yours, not the bank’s.
• It is not a government concession. The State is not a party to the contract. The SRE only issues the permit that allows the bank to act as trustee and verifies that the conditions are met (LIE art. 13, second paragraph).
• It is not an opaque structure or a workaround. It is a contract governed by the LGTOC since 1932, executed before a notario público (a Mexican civil-law notary, a public officer with far broader authority than a US or UK notary), recorded in the Public Property Registry and, on its banking side, supervised by the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV).

The general definition sits in article 381 of the LGTOC: “by virtue of the trust, the settlor transfers to a trustee institution the ownership or title of one or more assets or rights, as applicable, to be applied to lawful and determined purposes, entrusting the fulfilment of those purposes to the trustee institution itself.” The lawful and determined purpose, in our case, is letting you use and enjoy a home in Quintana Roo.

The parties: fideicomitente, fiduciaria and fideicomisario

Every real estate trust has three positions. Understanding them will save you confusion when the notaría emails you the draft deed.

The fideicomitente (settlor)

This is whoever transfers the property into the trust. In a typical Playa del Carmen purchase the settlor is the seller: in the same escritura (the notarial deed) they sell the property and transfer it to the trustee bank, which receives it for your benefit. Only persons with legal capacity to transfer ownership of the asset may act as settlor (LGTOC art. 384), which in practice means verifying that the seller is the registered titleholder, that there are no liens, and that if the property was already held in another trust, the previous trustee appears in the deed to transfer it or to terminate its contract.

The fiduciaria (trustee bank)

This is the credit institution that takes title and executes the purposes. Only institutions expressly authorised under the law may act as trustees (LGTOC art. 385), and the Credit Institutions Law lists among permitted banking operations the power to “carry out the trust operations referred to in the General Law of Negotiable Instruments and Credit Transactions” (LIC art. 46, section XV). The bank acts through its delegados fiduciarios, designated trust officers who sign the deeds and instructions (LIC art. 80), and it is civilly liable for damages caused by breaching the trust conditions or the law.

Two statutory protections matter enormously to a buyer. First, trust assets are ring-fenced: the bank must keep separate accounting for each contract and “in no case shall these assets be subject to liabilities other than those arising from the trust itself” (LIC art. 79). If the bank fails or is placed under intervention, your property is not part of the bank’s creditor estate. Second, the trustee must act “as a prudent person would” — the Spanish phrase is como buen padre de familia — and is liable for losses or impairment the assets suffer through its fault (LGTOC art. 391).

The fideicomisario (beneficiary)

That is you: the person who receives the benefit of the trust. Anyone with the capacity to receive that benefit may be a beneficiary (LGTOC art. 382), and the settlor may designate several beneficiaries to receive it simultaneously or successively (LGTOC art. 383). From that flow three figures you will see in your contract:

• First-place beneficiaries: the buyer or buyers — a married couple, for example, with defined percentages.
• Second-place beneficiaries: sometimes used to name a party who gains rights if a condition is met, such as a mortgage lender.
• Substitute beneficiaries: the designated heirs who acquire the rights on the death of the primary beneficiary.

The beneficiary has the right to demand performance from the trustee, to challenge the validity of acts the trustee carries out to the beneficiary’s detriment, in bad faith or beyond its powers, and to recover assets improperly removed from the trust estate (LGTOC art. 390). Moreover, where a bank fails to render accounts within fifteen business days of being required to do so, or is found liable for losses through gross negligence, it can be removed as trustee (LIC art. 84).

A table to keep it straight

Position	Who this usually is in Quintana Roo	What they do	What rights they hold
Fideicomitente (settlor)	The seller — individual, developer or previous trustee bank	Transfers the property into the trust	Whatever they reserve in the contract; normally nothing after the sale
Fiduciaria (trustee)	Authorised Mexican bank, acting through trust officers	Holds title and executes the beneficiary’s instructions	To charge fees; to act only within the stated purposes
Fideicomisario (beneficiary)	The foreign buyer and their substitutes	Occupies, enjoys, rents, instructs a sale	Use, fruits, appreciation, enforcement, removal of the trustee

The complete legal framework: which statute governs what

An informed buyer does not need to be a lawyer, but does need to know which text to open when an adviser says “that’s just how the law works.” This is the regulatory architecture of the residential bank trust, with the most recent amendments we have verified in the versions published by the Cámara de Diputados and the Quintana Roo State Congress.

Statute	Key articles	What it governs
Constitution (CPEUM)	27, section I	Prohibition on direct dominion by foreigners within 100 km of borders and 50 km of beaches
Foreign Investment Law (LIE)	2 VI, 10, 10-A, 11, 12, 13, 14, 32, 33, 38	Restricted zone, SRE permit, beneficial use, 50-year term, resolution deadlines, RNIE filing, penalties
Regulations to the LIE and RNIE	5, 6, 9 to 12	Definition of residential use, contents of the application, contract conditions, permit validity, extension
LGTOC	381 to 394	Definition, parties, written form, registry filing, beneficiary rights, trustee duties, termination, prohibitions
Credit Institutions Law (LIC)	46 XV, 79, 80, 84, 115	Banks’ trust powers, asset segregation, trust officers, removal, anti-money-laundering
Federal Fees Law (LFD)	25 III and V	Fees for examining the application and for permits to create, amend and extend trusts
Federal Tax Code (CFF)	14 V and VI	When a disposal occurs through a trust
Income Tax Law (LISR)	93 XIX, 117, 158, 160	Principal-residence exemption, rents via trust, rents and sales by non-residents
Quintana Roo municipal revenue laws	ISAI and predial chapters (Playa del Carmen: arts. 23 Bis to 23 Septies)	Taxable events in trusts, tax base, rate, taxpayers
Quintana Roo Notarial Law	Notarial function	Execution of the deed before a State notary

Two administrative actors must be added. The Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores issues the permit and receives statutory notices, and the Registro Nacional de Inversiones Extranjeras (RNIE, at the Ministry of Economy) is where the trustee registers the trust. Locally, the Public Registry of Property and Commerce of the State of Quintana Roo records the deed at the registry office covering the relevant municipality — Playa del Carmen, Tulum or Benito Juárez for Cancun — and the municipal treasuries collect ISAI and predial.

To see how the trust fits into the wider transaction, from offer to deed, it helps to read our complete guide to buying property in Mexico as a foreigner first and then come back here for the vehicle itself.

Residential versus non-residential use, and why the line matters

The LIE draws a line that determines whether you need a trust or can use a different structure. For residential purposes, a foreign individual may only acquire rights in the restricted zone through a fideicomiso (LIE art. 10, section II, and art. 11). For non-residential purposes, a Mexican company whose bylaws admit foreign shareholders may acquire direct dominion, filing notice with the SRE within the following sixty business days (LIE art. 10, section I).

The Regulations supply the operative definition (art. 5): a property with residential purposes is “one intended exclusively as a dwelling for the use of the owner or of third parties.” They then list what counts as non-residential, including: properties intended for timeshare; properties used for an industrial, commercial or tourism activity that are simultaneously used as a dwelling; properties used by a legal entity to develop and market real estate projects until their sale; and, in general, properties intended for commercial activities and the provision of services. In case of doubt, the SRE resolves the query within a period not exceeding ten business days and, absent a response, the property is deemed to have non-residential use.

Here is the question we field most often in Tulum and Playa del Carmen: is a condo I rent out on Airbnb still residential? The regulatory definition speaks of a dwelling for the use of the owner “or of third parties,” and the LIE expressly recognises the collection of fruits and yields as part of beneficial use. Renting your home out, by the week or by the year, is compatible with a residential trust. Buying a boutique hotel, a retail unit or a lot to develop and sell is a different animal: there the natural route is a Mexican corporation, which we analyse in detail in our guide to the restricted zone and using a Mexican corporation to buy property.

The penalty for simulated structures deserves a direct mention. The LIE punishes the “simulation of acts for the purpose of allowing foreign individuals or entities the enjoyment or disposal of real estate in the restricted zone” with a fine of up to the full amount of the transaction (art. 38, section V). Buying in the name of a Mexican nominee under an irrevocable power of attorney, or dressing a home up as a “commercial unit” so it can sit inside a company, is not tax planning: it is a risk of losing the entire value of the purchase.

Term: 50 renewable years, and what really happens at expiry

Article 13 of the LIE is short and clear: “the duration of the trusts referred to in this chapter shall be for a maximum period of fifty years, which may be extended at the request of the interested party.” The 50 years are a statutory maximum per contract, not an expiry date on your rights.

How the extension works

The Regulations to the LIE (art. 12) set out the procedure: the interested parties, through the trustee institutions, must apply for the extension to the SRE within the ninety business days preceding the termination of the contract, and the extension “shall be granted provided that the conditions” of the permit subsist and have been complied with. The Federal Fees Law, for its part, contemplates a specific fee for a late application to extend the term (art. 25, section V, subsection c), which confirms two things: that renewal is an ordinary administrative step, and that being late costs more.

In practice, the beneficiary should diary the expiry date and ask the bank, at least a year in advance, for the timetable and the quote for the renewal. Serious banks keep their own expiry controls, but the ultimate responsibility for not letting the trust lapse through inattention is yours. Remember, too, that trusts created under the foreign investment legislation in force before 1993 — the 1973 statute capped their duration at thirty years — were written with shorter terms and many have already gone through renewals. If you are buying beneficial rights in an existing Cancun trust from the 1980s or 1990s, check how much term is left and whether creating a fresh trust is the better move.

The nuance for corporate beneficiaries

The LGTOC prohibits trusts lasting more than fifty years “where a legal entity that is not a public-law entity or a charitable institution is designated as beneficiary” (art. 394, section III). For individuals the practical constraint is the LIE’s; for a foreign company buying a residence through a trust, the 50-year cap per contract comes from both statutes. Either way, the extension remains available.

What happens if the trust does terminate

The LGTOC lists the grounds for termination (art. 392): fulfilment of the purpose, impossibility, satisfaction of a resolutory condition, written agreement among the three parties, revocation where the settlor reserved that right, and the non-payment of fees case in article 392 Bis. Once terminated, and absent contrary agreement, the assets pass to the settlor or to the beneficiary as applicable (art. 393). Because a foreigner cannot receive direct dominion in the restricted zone, the contract provides that on termination without renewal the trustee will sell the property and deliver the proceeds to the beneficiary, or transfer it to a person the beneficiary designates who is legally capable of acquiring it. It is an entirely avoidable scenario, and one filing on time avoids it.

Step by step in Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cancun

The trust is created inside the notarial closing; it is not a parallel errand. This is the usual sequence in a residential sale to a foreign buyer in Quintana Roo, with the deadlines the law sets and the ones practice dictates.

1. Offer, promissory agreement and choosing the trustee bank

Once the offer is accepted, the parties sign the contrato de promesa de compraventa, the promissory purchase agreement, which should already state in writing that the buyer will acquire through a fideicomiso and who bears each cost. This is the moment to choose the trustee bank. Your notario or adviser will present two or three options; ask each one for its complete fee schedule in writing. If the seller already holds the property in a trust, evaluate whether taking an assignment of their beneficial rights beats opening your own — we compare the routes below.

2. Building the bank’s KYC file

The trustee is required to identify and know its client and to prevent transactions with unlawfully obtained funds (LIC art. 115). It will ask for your passport, proof of address, immigration document where applicable, information on the source of funds, and details of the substitute beneficiaries: full name, nationality, date of birth and relationship. Foreign documents normally require an apostille and translation by an authorised expert translator. An incomplete file is the single most frequent cause of delay we see.

3. Filing the permit application with the SRE

With the file approved, the trust officer submits the permit application. Since 2 April 2012, under an agreement published in the Official Gazette on 16 March of that year, the SRE requires the application to be filed exclusively by electronic means, through its SIPAC27 system, using the trust officer’s advanced electronic signature issued by the SAT. The Regulations (art. 9) set out the contents: name and nationality of the settlors; the bank’s name; name and nationality of the beneficiary and, where applicable, of second-place and substitute beneficiaries; duration; use of the property; description, location and surface area; and the property’s distance from the border or from the Federal Maritime Land Zone, with an annex of measurements and boundaries. The article 25 fees under the Federal Fees Law are paid at this stage.

The LIE requires the application to be resolved “within the five business days following the date of its filing before the competent central administrative unit, or within the following thirty business days if filed at the state delegations” and, once those deadlines pass without a resolution, the application is deemed approved (art. 14). In practice, timing depends on the system being operational and on the file being flawless; plan with margin.

4. Permit validity and signing the escritura

The permit is valid for one hundred and eighty calendar days from issuance, extendable once for a further one hundred and eighty days on justified written request (Regulations art. 11, penultimate paragraph). The deed must be signed within that window. In that same escritura, executed before a Quintana Roo notario público, the seller transfers the property to the trustee, the trustee accepts the appointment, beneficiaries and substitutes are named, the 50-year term is fixed, and the clauses the permit requires are incorporated.

One of those is the so-called Calvo clause: the instrument must state that the foreign beneficiaries agree to consider themselves Mexican nationals with respect to their rights and not to invoke the protection of their governments, on pain of forfeiting those rights to the Nation (Regulations art. 11, section I). Another is the trustee’s obligation to retain title “without granting real property rights to the beneficiaries” throughout the term (section II). The same article obliges the beneficiaries to inform the trustee about compliance with the purposes, and the trustee to report to the SRE when required (section IV); if the Ministry detects non-compliance with the permit conditions, the trustee has sixty business days to cure it and, failing that, the parties undertake to terminate the trust at the SRE’s request within one hundred and eighty days (section VII). These are boilerplate in every contract, but they explain why your bank may occasionally ask you to confirm how the property is being used. The full mechanics of the notarial closing, payment, tax withholding and delivery of possession are set out in our guide to the notary process and closing a purchase in Quintana Roo.

5. Post-closing notices and registration

Once the deed is signed, several clocks start that the bank and the notaría manage but that you should track:

• Notice to the SRE that the permit was used, within five business days of formalisation in a public instrument (Regulations art. 11, final paragraph).
• Filing at the Public Property Registry where the property is located; a trust over real estate takes effect against third parties from the date of filing (LGTOC art. 388). Without that filing, an attachment or a second sale by the seller could take priority over your right.
• Registration with the Registro Nacional de Inversiones Extranjeras, the trustee’s obligation, within the 40 business days following creation of the trust (LIE art. 32, section III and final paragraph; art. 33, section II). Omission or delay carries a fine (LIE art. 38, section IV).
• Payment of ISAI and cadastral registration at the municipal treasury, handled by the notaría.

6. Handover of the documentation

The final file should contain: the certified copy of the deed with the registry filing slip, a copy of the SRE permit, evidence of RNIE registration, ISAI and predial receipts, and the bank’s fee schedule with the due date of the first annual payment. Keep the trust department’s contact details and your contract number too: you will need them every year and at any future transaction.

On overall timing, practice in the Riviera Maya runs from several weeks to a couple of months between signing the promissory agreement and the deed, depending on how quickly the bank approves the file, the notaría’s availability, and how fast certificates and the appraisal come through. That is an estimate from experience, not a statutory deadline.

What a fideicomiso costs: setup, annual fee, amendments and termination

The cost of a trust has a statutory component and a market component. Separating them prevents surprises.

Federal permit fees (fixed by statute)

Article 25 of the Federal Fees Law governs the fees for procedures related to sections I and IV of constitutional article 27. Its section V sets the amounts for issuing permits to create trusts, and section III adds a smaller fee for examining each application. The law’s current text as published by the Cámara de Diputados (last amendment in the Official Gazette of 7 November 2025) shows the following figures, which we reproduce as a reference point and not as a guaranteed tariff:

Item (LFD art. 25)	Nominal fee in the law’s current text
Examination of each permit application (section III)	$596.29 MXN
V a) Permit to create trusts under LIE article 11	$21,648.83 MXN
V b) Amendment of those permits	$9,740.31 MXN
V c) Late application for a permit to extend the contract term	$10,613.78 MXN
V d) All other cases not specified	$715.27 MXN

One important nuance: those are the nominal fees written into the statute — the subsections of section V have not been redrafted since the 2009 amendment — but the Federal Fees Law itself requires them to be updated for inflation, so the amount actually payable in any given fiscal year is higher than the printed figure. The enforceable amount is the one the SRE publishes on its procedure sheet and the SAT publishes in the updated fee annex to the Miscellaneous Tax Resolution. Treat the table as an order of magnitude and confirm the applicable amount for the year of your filing with your bank, your notaría or the SRE directly.

Trustee bank fees (market priced)

There is no statutory tariff here; every bank quotes freely and competition between trust departments is real. The usual line items are:

• Study and acceptance of the appointment, also called the setup fee: paid once, when the trust is created.
• Annual administration fee: paid each year in advance for as long as the trust exists. It is usually quoted in dollars or in indexed pesos, and normally carries VAT because it is a service.
• Additional acts: substitution of beneficiaries, assignment of beneficial rights, issuing instruction letters for a sale, the trust officer’s appearance at signings, adding a second property to the same trust (which also requires prior SRE authorisation under Regulations art. 11, section V) and termination.

As an illustrative example, and purely so you know what to ask, a buyer in Playa del Carmen should expect an initial acceptance fee ranging from several hundred to somewhat over a thousand US dollars, and an annual fee in the several-hundred-dollar range, with meaningful variation between banks and according to property value. These figures appear in no statute and change over time; the only correct way to budget is to request written fee schedules from two or three trustee banks and compare them line by line. The detail of every other closing cost — ISAI, notario fees, registry duties, appraisal — is in our guide to closing costs, ISAI, notary fees and predial in Quintana Roo.

Notario fees and registry duties

A purchase deed that also creates a trust is longer than a plain sale deed and usually carries a somewhat higher notarial cost; registry filing duties are calculated under the State Fees Law. Your notario must give you an itemised estimate before signing.

What happens if you stop paying the annual fee

Article 392 Bis of the LGTOC allows the trustee to terminate the trust, without liability, when the consideration owed to it has gone unpaid “for a period equal to or greater than three years.” Before doing so it must notify the settlor and the beneficiary and give them fifteen business days to pay; if they do not, it transfers the assets to whoever is entitled or, if it cannot locate the interested parties after reasonable efforts, may sell them and credit the proceeds to the bank’s global account. In practice the common scenario is less dramatic but still expensive: the accumulated debt, with surcharges, surfaces when you want to sell, and the trustee will not issue the instruction letter until you are current. Set up a direct debit or a calendar reminder.

Substitute beneficiaries, inheritance and estate planning

One of the most valuable features of the bank trust, and the least exploited, is the designation of fideicomisarios sustitutos — substitute beneficiaries. The LGTOC permits several beneficiaries to be designated to receive the benefit successively (art. 383), and the Regulations to the LIE require the permit application to name the substitutes (art. 9, section III).

How it works in practice

On the death of the first-place beneficiary, the substitutes evidence the death to the trustee — a death certificate, apostilled and translated if issued abroad, plus identification of the substitutes — and the bank recognises them as the new beneficiaries in accordance with the contract. No Mexican probate proceeding is opened over the property, because the asset was never in the deceased’s estate: it was in the trust, and the contract had already determined who succeeds to it. That saves time, professional fees and, above all, uncertainty for families living in another country.

There is a statutory limit to bear in mind. The LGTOC prohibits trusts “in which the benefit is granted to various persons successively who must replace one another on the death of the previous one, except where the substitution takes place in favour of persons who are alive or already conceived at the settlor’s death” (art. 394, section II). Translated: you can name your children and grandchildren already born, but not an indefinite chain of future generations.

Planning recommendations

• Name substitutes from day one, with clear percentages where there are several. Adding them later is possible, but it costs fees, a deed and, as we will see, potentially tax.
• Plan for predecease: what happens if a substitute dies before you. Some contracts allow substitutes of the substitutes within the statutory limit.
• Minors can be beneficiaries; the contract must state who exercises their rights until they come of age.
• Spouses: if you buy together as first-place beneficiaries, define whether on the death of one the survivor takes 100% before the substitutes step in.
• Coordinate with your home-country will. The trust governs the Mexican property; your US, Canadian or UK will governs everything else. Avoid contradictions between the two documents.
• Update after divorces, remarriages and births. A trust that still names an ex-spouse as substitute is a common and entirely avoidable problem.

Substitution has a tax cost in Quintana Roo

The Quintana Roo municipal revenue laws include among the events taxable under the property acquisition tax “the assignment of rights of settlors or beneficiaries,” and specify that an assignment exists “where there is a substitution of a settlor or a beneficiary, for any reason” (Ley de Hacienda del Municipio de Playa del Carmen, art. 23 Bis, section VII; in equivalent terms, the state ISAI law applicable to other municipalities, art. 5, subsection g). Transfer by inheritance or bequest is also a taxable event. Before changing beneficiaries, or when processing the substitutes’ succession, ask your notario to quantify the ISAI and any available reductions, and review the home-country consequences with your own tax adviser: the US tax authority, for instance, has issued guidance on how these Mexican trusts are treated for its own rules, which an American taxpayer should review with their preparer.

The trustee, for its part, must file a report with the SRE by April of each year covering trusts in which there was a trustee substitution, a designation of substitute beneficiaries, or an assignment of beneficial rights in the case of residential property (Regulations art. 11, section III). One more reason for any change to be formally documented with the bank.

Selling or transferring a property held in a fideicomiso

The day will come to sell your Tulum condo or your Cancun house. The trust offers three routes, each with different legal and tax consequences.

Route 1: assigning beneficial rights to another foreigner

The foreign buyer becomes the new beneficiary of the same trust, with the same bank. The original contract stays in place, the term keeps running, and the trustee reports the change to the SRE in its annual filing. Advantages: no new creation permit is paid and the bank’s process is shorter. Disadvantages: the buyer inherits the seller’s bank, fee schedule and remaining term, and some trustees charge assignment fees close to a full setup.

Route 2: termination and a new trust for the buyer

The foreign buyer sets up their own trust with the bank of their choice; in the deed, the seller’s trustee transfers the property to the buyer’s trustee and the original trust is terminated. This requires a new SRE permit for the incoming trust. It is the usual route when the buyer wants a full 50 years or a different bank.

Route 3: transfer to a Mexican buyer

If the buyer is Mexican, or a Mexican company with capacity to acquire, the beneficiary instructs the trustee to transfer direct ownership to the buyer; the trust terminates through fulfilment of its purpose (LGTOC art. 392, section I) and the trustee must notify the SRE of the termination within the following forty business days (Regulations art. 11, section VI). For transfers of real estate to take effect, the trustee’s declaration recorded in the Public Registry suffices (LGTOC art. 393).

The trustee’s role in the sale

In all three routes you need the beneficiary’s instruction letter to the trustee and the trust officer’s appearance at the signing. The bank will verify that you are current on fees, that the buyer (if foreign) has completed their own identification process, and that the price is paid through traceable banking channels. Schedule the signing well in advance: trust officers’ calendars in Cancun and Playa del Carmen fill up in high season.

Tax on the sale

For federal tax purposes, the assignment of the beneficiary’s rights or the instruction to the trustee to transfer to a third party is treated as a disposal of the property by the beneficiary, who is deemed to have acquired the asset upon designation and to dispose of it upon assigning or instructing (CFF art. 14, section VI, subsection a). In other words, the trust is transparent for income tax purposes: you sell as though you were the owner.

If you are a non-resident for Mexican tax purposes, income tax on the disposal of real estate is determined by applying a 25% rate to the total proceeds without deductions, or alternatively — if you have a legal representative in Mexico — you may elect to apply the maximum individual tariff rate to the gain, being the price less indexed cost and authorised deductions. Where the transaction is executed in a public deed, the notario calculates the tax under their own responsibility, states it in the deed and remits it (LISR art. 160). If you are a Mexican tax resident, you are taxed under Title IV and may access the principal-residence exemption up to 700,000 UDIs when the requirements are met (LISR art. 93, section XIX), which requires proving tax residence and that the property was your home. Keeping the CFDI tax receipts for the purchase, improvements, notarial fees and commissions is what separates a sale taxed on the gain from a sale taxed on the gross price. The full treatment, with worked examples, is in our guide to capital gains tax when selling property in Mexico.

Fideicomiso, Mexican corporation or co-ownership with a Mexican: an honest comparison

“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to set up a company?” comes up in almost every first meeting. The short answer: for a home you will use or rent out as a home, the fideicomiso is the only lawful route for a foreign individual in the restricted zone. A Mexican corporation is the route for non-residential activities. And co-ownership with a Mexican makes the foreigner the owner of nothing at all on the coast.

Criterion	Bank trust (fideicomiso)	Mexican corporation admitting foreign shareholders	Buying in a Mexican national’s name
Legal basis	LIE arts. 11-14	LIE art. 10, section I	Constitution art. 27 I (bars direct dominion for foreigners)
Permitted use	Residential, including renting the home out	Non-residential: hospitality, retail, development	The Mexican national is the sole owner
SRE procedure	Prior permit issued to the bank	Notice within 60 business days of acquisition	None
Recurring cost	Annual trustee fee	Accountant, monthly and annual filings, RNIE, corporate minutes	None formally
Inheritance	Substitute beneficiaries	Succession of shares under bylaws and applicable law	Depends on the Mexican national’s will
Main risk	Missing the annual fee or the renewal	Using the company for your own home: breach of the declared use	Sanctionable simulation (LIE art. 38 V) and loss of control

A corporation makes sense for an investor buying several properties to run lodging professionally, for a retail unit or for a development project. Even then, the obligations to keep accounting records, file returns, register with the RNIE and keep those filings current carry an annual cost that, for a single home, usually exceeds a trustee’s annual fee. And anyone using a company for their own holiday home is declaring a non-residential use to the SRE that simply is not real.

Taxation around the trust: ISAI, predial, rental income and sale

The fideicomiso is not a tax-saving tool. It is a holding vehicle. These are the taxes triggered and who pays them.

Property acquisition tax (ISAI)

In Quintana Roo, ISAI — the impuesto sobre adquisición de inmuebles, or property acquisition tax — is municipal and each town hall regulates it in its own revenue law. The Ley de Hacienda del Municipio de Playa del Carmen (the name in force since the municipality of Solidaridad officially adopted the name Playa del Carmen in 2025) governs the tax in Chapter I Bis, added in December 2019. Taxable events include the transfer made by the settlor when creating a title-transferring trust, the transfer made by the trustee in fulfilment of the trust, the assignment of settlor or beneficiary rights, and transfer by inheritance or bequest (art. 23 Bis, sections V, VI, VII and X). The base is the highest of the property values the law itself lists (art. 23 Quáter), and article 23 Quinquies, as amended in the publication of 10 December 2025, sets the rate at 4%. Payment is due within fifteen days of the taxable event; for acquisitions through a trust, when the disposal scenarios of the State Municipal Tax Code occur (art. 23 Sexies, section III); and for inheritances, on adjudication of the estate’s assets or, failing that, three years after the decedent’s death (art. 23 Sexies, section II).

Tulum and Benito Juárez (Cancun) have their own revenue laws with their own rules and rates, while the Ley del Impuesto sobre Adquisición de Bienes Inmuebles de los Municipios del Estado, which under its current text as published by the Congress applies only in Bacalar, Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Lázaro Cárdenas (art. 1), keeps a 2% rate (art. 9). The practical lesson is twofold: ISAI varies by municipality, and in an ordinary purchase through a trust the buyer pays ISAI once, on acquisition, even though title sits with the bank. When you change beneficiaries or assign rights years later, the taxable-event analysis has to be run again.

Predial (annual property tax)

Predial, the annual municipal property tax, is paid to the municipal treasury. The Ley de Hacienda del Municipio de Playa del Carmen, for example, names the trustee as the predial taxpayer “for as long as it does not transfer ownership of the property to the beneficiary or to other persons in fulfilment of the trust,” with joint liability for possessors or usufructuaries of the trust asset; the other municipalities’ laws follow the same logic. In practice, the trust contract obliges the beneficiary to pay predial and utilities, and banks routinely ask for annual proof. Many Quintana Roo municipalities offer early-payment discounts in the first months of the year; ask at your municipal treasury.

Income tax on rental income

If you rent the home out, the income is yours. Where the lease is channelled through the trust — that is, the bank collects and administers the rents, uncommon in residential trusts but possible — the Income Tax Law treats the yields as income of the settlor or, in irrevocable trusts, of the beneficiary, and the trustee makes provisional payments of 10% on each four-month period’s income (art. 117). If you are a non-resident, income from granting the use or enjoyment of real estate located in Mexico is taxed at 25% of the income obtained, without deductions, through withholding by the payer; where the income is received through the trust, it is the trustee that withholds and issues the tax receipt (art. 158). If you become a Mexican tax resident, you are taxed on rents under Title IV with deductions available. To weigh short-term against long-term letting with those numbers in hand, see our guide to investing in condos: vacation versus long-term rental in the Riviera Maya and speak to an accountant experienced with non-residents.

Income tax on the sale

Covered in the previous section: the trust is transparent (CFF art. 14 VI) and the regime depends on your tax residence (LISR arts. 160 and 93 XIX). The notario is the withholding agent and is responsible for the calculation stated in the deed.

National Foreign Investment Registry

Not a tax, but a federal obligation borne by the trustee: registering the trust within 40 business days and keeping the information current. Confirm with your bank that it has done so and request a copy of the certificate. The fine for omission falls on the obligated party, but an incomplete file complicates a future sale.

Choosing a trustee bank, and what changed in 2025

Banks are not equal in their trust departments. Some run teams specialised in restricted-zone trusts with English-language service and a presence in Cancun and Playa del Carmen; others treat it as a marginal service and take weeks to answer an email. The criteria we recommend weighing:

1. Authorisation and supervision: check the institution appears in the CNBV’s register of supervised entities as a commercial bank in operation.
2. A complete written fee schedule: acceptance, annual fee, assignment, beneficiary substitution, instruction letter, termination, trust officer appearance. Ask how the annual fee is indexed.
3. Real timelines: how many days to approve a file, how many to file with the SRE, how much notice it needs for a signing date.
4. Digital operation and communication: a platform for paying the annual fee from abroad, statements, and a direct contact in the trust area in Quintana Roo.
5. Exit cost and procedure: what it charges for a trustee substitution if you ever want to change banks (LGTOC art. 385 permits it).
6. Stability track record: trust books can be transferred between banks, and it is worth knowing how a bank has treated its clients during such transitions.

That last point stopped being theoretical in 2025. In June of that year the CNBV ordered temporary managerial interventions at CIBanco and Intercam Banco, in the context of orders issued by the US Treasury Department (FinCEN) against both institutions. CIBanco was one of the country’s largest trustees and a very visible player in foreign buyers’ trusts across the Riviera Maya. In August 2025 the Ministry of Finance announced that CIBanco’s trust business would be transferred to Banco Multiva and that a significant part of Intercam’s operations would move to Kapital Bank, with the express aim of preserving contract continuity and protecting the trusts and their beneficiaries; in December 2025 the Ministry announced authorisation of Multiva’s merger with that trust business.

For a buyer, the lesson is twofold. First, the asset segregation of article 79 of the LIC worked exactly as designed: trust properties were not part of the banks’ at-risk assets and the contracts held. Second, anyone holding a trust with those institutions had to update contact details, verify which trustee to pay the annual fee to and, in some cases, wait for the change to be formalised before selling. If you are about to buy beneficial rights in an existing trust in Playa del Carmen or Tulum, ask explicitly who the current trustee is and request the latest statement of account.

If you have a dispute with your trustee that internal channels do not resolve, CONDUSEF handles complaints by users against financial institutions, including trust services.

Common mistakes and red flags

These are the problems we see most often in foreign buyers’ files in Quintana Roo, nearly all of them avoidable.

• Paying the full price before the deed. The trust is born in the escritura; until then you hold no right over the property. Use a promissory agreement with staged payments and, where possible, an escrow or secure payment mechanism that releases funds against signature.
• Buying pre-construction with no clear path to the trust. In a project under construction you sign a private contract with the developer and the trust is created on delivery, months or years later. Verify that the developer holds clean title, that the condominium regime exists and that it has capacity to transfer to your trustee; our guide to pre-construction risks and developer due diligence sets out what to ask for.
• Ejido land or land without full dominion. Only privately owned land recorded in the Public Registry can be placed in a trust. An ejido parcel — communal agrarian land — on the outskirts of Tulum cannot enter a fideicomiso until full private dominion has been adopted and title registered. “Assignment of ejido rights” contracts are not a substitute.
• Failing to name substitutes, or leaving them out of date. As covered above: it is the difference between an orderly transition and a problem for your family.
• Forgetting the annual fee. Three years of non-payment enable termination by the bank (LGTOC art. 392 Bis) and, long before that, block any sale.
• Letting the SRE permit lapse. It is valid for 180 calendar days, extendable once. If the signing slips because of documents, the bank must request the extension in time or file again.
• Substituting the trust with an “irrevocable power of attorney” or a nominee. Beyond the risk of losing the property to the formal titleholder, this is a simulation punishable by a fine of up to the full transaction amount (LIE art. 38 V).
• Not verifying the registry filing. Without registration in the Public Registry the trust has no effect against third parties (LGTOC art. 388). Ask for the filing slip, not just the certified deed copy.
• Putting several properties into one trust without thinking it through. Adding a second condo requires a permit to expand the trust’s subject matter and complicates a partial sale. Often one trust per unit is the better structure.
• Confusing “50 years” with expiry. The term is extended; the property reverts to no one if the application is filed on time.
• Ignoring the Federal Maritime Land Zone. The 20-metre strip of dry land adjoining the beach is federal (Ley General de Bienes Nacionales, art. 119) and is occupied under a ZOFEMAT concession, not owned; the trust covers the private lot, not the beach. Before buying beachfront, review the current ZOFEMAT concession, its holder and its expiry date alongside the lot’s title.

Local specifics in Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cancun

The federal framework is identical across Quintana Roo, but the execution has local nuances a buyer should know.

Playa del Carmen (municipality of Playa del Carmen, formerly Solidaridad)

This is the market with the highest volume of residential trusts, thanks to its condo stock in Centro, Playacar, Gonzalo Guerrero, Zazil-Ha, Coco Beach and the developments running north. There are notarías with deep experience closing with foreign buyers, and trust officers from several banks who appear locally. ISAI is governed by the Ley de Hacienda del Municipio de Playa del Carmen discussed above. Most of the supply sits under a condominium regime, so alongside the trust you should review the condominium rules, the fees and the state of the administration. You can browse current condos for sale in Playa del Carmen and filter by area.

Tulum

The municipality of Tulum concentrates most of the cases involving land with an ejido history, recently issued titles and condominium regimes still in process. The trust does not replace title due diligence: ask the notario for an up-to-date lien-free certificate, verify the chain of ownership, and confirm that the lot sits outside protected natural areas or carries compatible land use. In Aldea Zamá, La Veleta, Región 15 and the hotel zone the supply of new condos is broad, and most foreign purchases close with a trust and the developer acting as settlor.

Cancun (municipality of Benito Juárez)

Cancun holds the state’s oldest stock of trusts. In the hotel zone, Puerto Cancún, Isla Dorada or Puerto Juárez it is common to find properties whose trust was created decades ago: check the remaining term, the current trustee and any fee arrears before deciding between an assignment of rights and a fresh trust. Benito Juárez has its own revenue law for ISAI and predial. As the seat of several banks’ regional offices, coordinating signings tends to be faster.

Puerto Morelos, Puerto Aventuras, Akumal and Cozumel

All inside the restricted zone; the trust is equally required. Puerto Aventuras and Akumal are full of villas and condos in private communities whose internal regulations should be reviewed alongside the trust. Cozumel and Isla Mujeres are islands: their entire territory lies within the 50 km coastal strip.

The foreign buyer’s pre-signing checklist

Print this list and go through it with your notario and your adviser before the deed.

1. The promissory agreement states that you are buying through a fideicomiso and who pays each item.
2. You have written fee schedules from at least two trustee banks and chose on the merits.
3. Your identification file is complete, apostilled and translated where required.
4. The permit application names every first-place beneficiary, with percentages, plus the substitutes.
5. The SRE permit is valid on the signing date (180 calendar days from issuance).
6. The seller is the registered titleholder — or their trustee appears in the deed — and there is a recent lien-free certificate.
7. The property is registered private property, under a condominium regime where applicable, with no ejido history lacking full dominion.
8. The draft deed contains the Calvo clause, the 50-year term, the prohibition on granting real rights to the beneficiary, and the destination of the property on termination.
9. The closing budget itemises ISAI, notario fees, registry duties, appraisal, SRE fees and trustee fees.
10. The price is paid by traceable bank transfer, ideally against signature.
11. After signing you will receive: certified deed copy with the registry slip, SRE permit, RNIE certificate, ISAI and predial receipts, and the trust statement of account.
12. You have diarised the annual trustee fee, the predial and the trust’s expiry date.

If you would like us to review your draft trust contract or your bank’s fee schedule before you sign, you can get in touch with our team. And if you are still choosing a property, our catalogue of Riviera Maya properties for sale filters by city, type and budget.

Frequently asked questions about the fideicomiso

The answers below summarise the sections above; each points to the applicable article so you can verify it with your notario.

Does the bank own my house?

Formally, the trustee is the registered titleholder because the Foreign Investment Law requires it, but it may act only within the purposes of the contract and for your benefit. You hold the use, the enjoyment, the rents, the appreciation and the right to instruct a sale. The property is segregated from the bank’s own estate (LIC art. 79) and the bank is liable for damages caused by breach (LIC art. 80).

What happens when the 50 years end?

You apply for the extension through the trustee within the 90 business days before expiry (Regulations to the LIE art. 12) and the trust continues. The 50 years are a maximum per contract, not a date on which you lose your rights.

Can I rent out a property held in trust?

Yes, both long term and by the week. Beneficial use includes the collection of fruits and yields (LIE art. 12). You must meet your income tax obligations: 25% on gross income via withholding if you are a non-resident (LISR art. 158), or the Title IV leasing regime if you are a Mexican tax resident.

What happens to the property if I die?

The substitute beneficiaries you named acquire the rights under the contract, with no Mexican probate over the property. The substitution may trigger municipal ISAI and requires documentation filed with the trustee.

How much does the SRE permit cost?

The fee sits in the Federal Fees Law, article 25, section V. In the law’s current text the nominal fee for the creation permit is 21,648.83 pesos, with lower amounts for amendments and for late applications to extend the term, plus a small fee for examining the application (section III). Because the fees are updated for inflation, the amount payable in your filing year is higher; confirm it with the SRE, the SAT fee annex or your trustee bank.

Can I change trustee banks?

Yes. The LGTOC provides for substitution of the trustee institution (art. 385) and the Regulations to the LIE contemplate the trustee reporting cases of trustee substitution to the SRE. It involves exit and entry fees, a deed and a new registry filing, so weigh it against simply renegotiating the fee schedule with your current bank.

What happens if I stop paying the annual fee?

After three or more years of non-payment, the trustee may terminate the trust after notice and a fifteen-business-day cure period (LGTOC art. 392 Bis). Long before that point, the arrears will block any sale or amendment. Set up a direct debit.

Do I need a fideicomiso if my spouse is Mexican?

Your Mexican spouse can acquire direct dominion. You, as a foreigner, cannot appear as a co-owner of direct dominion in the restricted zone. The alternatives are for title to be held in the Mexican spouse’s name, or to create a trust in which you are both beneficiaries. Each option has different property, succession and tax consequences, and the marital property regime — community property or separation of assets — matters; this is a case to resolve with the notario before signing the promissory agreement.