Pre-construction in the Riviera Maya: the real risks and how to run due diligence on a developer

Buying pre-construction in the Riviera Maya — a Tulum condo that is still a rendering, a Playa del Carmen tower with nothing but the excavation done — is the most common way foreign buyers enter the Quintana Roo property market, and it is also where most of the problems that later reach PROFECO, law firms and expat buyer forums originate. The discount against a finished product is real. So is the risk, and it does not sit in the beach or the architecture: it sits in the developer, in its permits, and in the contract you sign.

This guide explains, with the statutes open on the table, how a pre-construction sale actually works in Tulum, Playa del Carmen and the rest of the Cancún–Tulum corridor: what the Federal Consumer Protection Law and NOM-247-SE-2021 oblige a developer to show you before you hand over a single peso, which municipal, state and federal permits a project must hold, how to read a payment schedule and its penalty clauses, and how to verify a developer using public sources rather than its own brochure.

Unlike generic “how to invest in pre-construction” content, there are no appreciation promises here. What there is instead is a due diligence methodology aimed at the developer, with the legal articles that support each step, the Quintana Roo bodies that actually intervene — the municipalities of Solidaridad, Tulum and Benito Juárez, SEDETUS, the Public Registry of Property and Commerce, SEMARNAT — and a checklist you can walk through point by point with your lawyer and your notario público (the public notary, a senior state-appointed lawyer who authenticates property transfers) before you sign anything.

If you are American, Canadian or British, the analysis also intersects with the fideicomiso — the bank trust through which foreigners hold coastal property — and with how you move money into Mexico. Both topics have their own guide on this site and are linked at the point where they come up.

Key takeaways

• A pre-sale is the purchase of a future asset, conditional on the developer actually building it. The Quintana Roo Civil Code permits the sale of future goods (art. 2559), but the buyer assumes the seller’s execution risk, and that risk is managed with documents, not with trust.
• The Federal Consumer Protection Law (Ley Federal de Protección al Consumidor, LFPC) applies to subdividers, builders and housing developers (art. 73) and requires them to register their contracts with PROFECO, the federal consumer protection agency. Article 73 BIS lists thirteen blocks of information that must be made available to you, among them the executive project, the title to the land, the licences and the drawings.
• NOM-247-SE-2021, the Mexican Official Standard in force since September 2022, defines the pre-construction adhesion contract, requires the price and characteristics to be displayed visibly, regulates deposits, and establishes that late delivery triggers a contractual penalty or a damages claim, with penalties that must be reciprocal and equivalent.
• At a minimum the project needs clean title, a land-use compatibility certificate, a municipal construction licence, utility feasibility letters and, where it affects coastal ecosystems, wetlands or jungle, environmental clearance from SEMARNAT (LGEEPA, art. 28).
• The condominium property regime must be created by public deed, with municipal authorisation, and recorded in the Public Registry of Property and Commerce. Without it, your unit cannot be deeded to you.
• The Quintana Roo Urban Development Actions Law (2018, amended several times since) governs subdivisions, urban complexes and condominiums: a promoter selling before completing the urbanisation works must guarantee them with a bond in favour of the municipality, and advertising for lots must identify the licence and the municipal sales authorisation.
• The minimum statutory warranty on a new property is five years for structure, three for waterproofing and one for everything else, counted from actual handover (LFPC, art. 73 QUÁTER).
• Your money must travel to identifiable accounts — escrow, an administration trust, or the account of the company that owns the land — never to individuals and never to companies other than the one signing.

What a pre-sale is, and why the Riviera Maya version is different

In legal terms, NOM-247-SE-2021 defines the pre-construction adhesion contract as a form of sale “subject to a condition precedent consisting of the supplier undertaking to build a property and the consumer agreeing to make an advance payment”, generally at a preferential price relative to the finished product, and it acknowledges that in practice the promise-to-sell instrument is frequently used (clause 3.13). Put plainly: you buy something that does not exist, at a lower price, and you partly finance its construction with your instalments.

In Playa del Carmen and Tulum this model dominates new supply for three structural reasons. First, land is expensive relative to construction cost, and the developer needs early liquidity to pay for the site and start work. Second, a large share of buyers are foreigners or Mexicans from other cities purchasing remotely, so the rendering and the sales narrative carry more weight than a physical inspection would. Third, the vacation rental market has created demand for a “ready to operate” product, and developers are selling the future cash flow as much as the bricks.

For a buyer in Toronto, Denver or Manchester, that last point deserves emphasis. You are not buying the same instrument you would buy off-plan in Florida or under a UK reservation agreement. There is no equivalent of a mandatory deposit protection scheme, no NHBC-style structural insurance market operating as standard, and no title insurance culture. The protections exist, but they come from Mexican consumer law and from what you negotiate into the contract, not from an industry-wide safety net.

The four phases of a pre-sale and how the risk changes

A typical Riviera Maya pre-sale passes through four stages. In the pre-launch or “friends and family” list, the developer does not yet hold all its permits and offers the lowest prices in exchange for a reservation; risk is at its maximum because the project may not obtain its licence, or may change shape entirely. In the formal pre-sale phase, a construction licence and a registered contract exist — or should exist; the price rises and the risk falls. During construction the risk concentrates in the schedule, the build quality and the developer’s liquidity. At handover and closing the risk shifts to hidden defects, the condominium regime and the initial management, topics covered in our guide to taking delivery of a new condo, hidden defects and warranties.

The discount you are offered at each phase is the price of the risk you are taking on. If a developer sells at an aggressive discount before it holds a licence, it is asking you to finance its regulatory uncertainty. That can be a reasonable decision if the developer has a track record and real assets behind it, and a very poor one if the counterparty is a single-purpose vehicle incorporated three months ago whose only asset is an option over the land.

Future goods and execution risk in the Quintana Roo Civil Code

The Civil Code for the State of Quintana Roo allows future goods to be the object of a sale (arts. 181 and 2559). The same Code warns, in article 2588, that where the buyer assumes the risk that the good may never come into existence the contract becomes aleatory, and that the transaction has no effect at all if the existence of the good depends exclusively on the will or the activity of the seller. That rule is the underlying reason why a serious pre-construction contract cannot leave construction “at the developer’s discretion”: it must fix a determinate object, a deadline, the consequences of breach and the refund mechanics. What two companies would negotiate freely in a commercial contract is, in a sale of housing to the public, additionally regulated by consumer protection legislation, as we shall see.

The genuine advantages and disadvantages of buying pre-construction

It is worth separating the sales arguments from the verifiable facts.

Aspect	Genuine advantage	Real risk or cost
Price	Entry below the price of finished product in the same area, if the project is delivered.	The “discount” is calculated against a future list price set by the developer itself, not by the market.
Payments	Deferred schedule during construction, interest-free in most cases.	Advance payments with no security interest: if the developer fails, you are an unsecured creditor.
Product	Choice of unit, floor and orientation; scope for minor finish adjustments.	Project changes, reductions in floor area, substitution of “equivalent” materials.
Time	Room to organise financing, the fideicomiso and your tax residency position.	Delays of months or years; opportunity cost and exchange-rate cost.
Legal regime	LFPC and NOM-247 protection when the seller is a housing developer.	The registered contract only protects you if you sign exactly the registered model.
Closing	Fresh deeds, with no encumbrance history from previous owners.	No deed until the condominium regime is recorded; until then you hold only a personal right against the seller.

The conclusion is not that pre-construction is good or bad. It is that its advantages depend entirely on the solvency and seriousness of the developer, and that its risks are mitigated with specific documents the law gives you the right to demand.

The legal framework that protects the buyer: LFPC and NOM-247-SE-2021

Many buyers, foreigners especially, assume that pre-construction in Mexico is an unregulated space. It is not. Two federal layers apply directly when you buy housing from a developer, on top of the Quintana Roo statutes that govern permits and condominiums.

Federal Consumer Protection Law: articles 73 to 73 QUINTUS

Article 73 of the LFPC establishes that transactions involving real property fall under the law when the suppliers are “subdividers, builders, promoters and other persons involved in advising on and selling housing to the public”, and it adds that the contracts used in those activities must be registered with the Federal Consumer Protection Agency. The developer selling you a condo in Tulum or Playa del Carmen that is designated as housing fits that definition, even if your own plan is to rent it out.

Article 73 BIS lists what the supplier must make available to the consumer: in the case of a pre-sale, the complete executive construction project, the scale model and, where applicable, the show unit (fr. I); the documents evidencing ownership and information on encumbrances, which must be released when the deed is signed (fr. II); the seller’s legal standing and its authorisation to market the sale (fr. III); the status of payment of taxes and utilities (fr. IV); the authorisations, licences or construction permits relating to technical specifications, safety, land use, materials and basic services (fr. V); the structural, architectural and installation drawings (fr. VI); the characteristics of the property, including floor area, parking, common areas and the undivided percentage interest (fr. VII); any additional benefits offered (fr. VIII); the payment options with the total amount payable under each (fr. IX); in credit transactions, the type of credit and the payment projection (fr. X); the closing conditions and any outlays distinct from the price (fr. XI); the cancellation conditions (fr. XII); and the existence and constitution of mortgage, trust or other guarantees (fr. XIII).

Article 73 TER fixes the minimum content of the contract that gets registered: place and date; Spanish language, which prevails if there is a version in another language (fr. II); tax identification of supplier and consumer; amounts in national currency, although they may also be expressed in foreign currency (fr. V); description of the object; total price, payment method and additional outlays; rights and obligations of both parties; contractual penalties that are “reciprocal and equivalent” for supplier and consumer (fr. IX); warranties and reimbursable expenses; the cancellation procedure and its implications (fr. XI); the start and completion dates of the works and of delivery of the property, from which the supplier is released only if it fully proves an act of God or force majeure directly affecting it or the property (fr. XII); technical characteristics of the structure, installations and finishes (fr. XIII); and the closing terms, with a statement that the property will be free of encumbrances at signature (fr. XIV).

Article 73 QUÁTER sets the minimum statutory warranty for any property covered by the law: five years for structural matters, three years for waterproofing and one year for all other elements, each counted from actual physical delivery. These periods come from the reform published in the Federal Official Gazette in early 2012, which replaced the general one-year minimum in force since 2004. During the warranty the supplier must carry out, at no cost, any repair of defects in the property; the time the repairs take does not count against the warranty period; and once repaired, the warranty starts running afresh for the item repaired or replaced while continuing for the rest of the property. Article 73 QUINTUS governs what happens when, after the warranty has been invoked, the defect persists: the supplier must repair again and pay compensation of five per cent of the value of the repair for minor faults, or twenty per cent of the price of the property for serious faults — those affecting the structure or the installations and compromising full use or safety, or preventing use for the intended purpose. Where serious faults prove impossible to repair, replacement of the property or rescission of the contract with refund of amounts paid plus interest applies. NOM-247 additionally requires the adhesion contract to include the warranty terms and the mechanism for enforcing it (clause 6, fr. XII) and, where applicable, the terms of any quality insurance policy taken out by the developer (fr. XXIV).

Registering the contract with PROFECO: why this is not a formality

Articles 86 and 87 of the LFPC build the prior registration system. The Ministry of Economy may, through Mexican Official Standards, subject adhesion contracts to prior registration with PROFECO where they involve disproportionate obligations or a “high probability of non-performance” (art. 86); contracts subject to registration must contain a clause conferring administrative jurisdiction on the agency and must state their registration number. Article 87 provides that PROFECO resolves within thirty business days — if that period elapses without a resolution, the model is deemed approved and the agency must register it — and, most importantly, that contracts which should have been registered and were not, or whose registration was refused, “shall produce no effects against the consumer”. Registered contracts must moreover be used in all transactions and must faithfully match the model. Article 86 QUÁTER closes the loop: any difference between the registered text and the one used, to the consumer’s detriment, is deemed not written.

For a buyer this has an immediate practical consequence. Ask for the adhesion contract’s registration number and look it up in PROFECO’s Public Registry of Adhesion Contracts (rpca.profeco.gob.mx). Compare the registered model with the document you are being asked to sign, clause by clause. Annexes, “letters of intent” and “amending agreements” that depart from the model are exactly the kind of divergence the law neutralises — but only if you spot it and invoke it.

NOM-247-SE-2021: the standard that puts the law into practice

Mexican Official Standard NOM-247-SE-2021, published in the Federal Official Gazette on 22 March 2022 and in force 180 calendar days later, regulates commercial information, advertising and the minimum contract elements in housing sales. It applies only to subdividers, builders, promoters and others involved in selling housing to the public — in other words, to whoever is selling you a pre-construction unit. Its provisions most relevant to a Riviera Maya buyer are these:

• An obligation to deliver a statement of rights, in physical or electronic form, setting out the protections granted by the LFPC and by the standard itself (clause 4.8).
• Deposits: the supplier must issue a receipt and inform you, before receiving the money, that it will be credited against the price, what rights and obligations it generates, and the mechanisms, deadlines and penalties for its return, which must be made through the same payment method (clause 4.4).
• Pre-sales: the supplier must display the price and the characteristics of the homes conspicuously and visibly, must have sufficient financial capacity to handle claims and compensation, and must conduct the pre-sale under the pre-construction adhesion contract format (clause 4.6).
• Advertising, including advertising carried out through trusts, must be truthful, verifiable and clear; a lack of truthfulness obliges the supplier to deliver what was offered and, where that is not possible, opens the door to the compensation under article 92 TER of the LFPC, which may not be less than twenty per cent of the price paid (clauses 5.1 and 5.2).
• Ownership documents: the public deed recorded in the Public Registry, plus information on encumbrances, restrictions on title and outstanding debts (clause 5.4).
• Sales agents accredited with a credential issued by the supplier, whose statements are deemed authorised by it (clause 5.5).
• Current licences, permits and authorisations for land use, construction, subdivision, lot splitting, merger, re-plotting and condominium status, available to the consumer in printed or digital form (clause 5.6.2), and drawings endorsed by a responsible expert or Director Responsable de Obra, the licensed engineer or architect who assumes legal responsibility for the works (clause 5.6.4).
• The adhesion contract (clause 6): a reciprocal and equivalent contractual penalty (fr. XI), warranty terms (fr. XII), a cancellation procedure (fr. XIII) and delivery conditions and date, with the rule that a delay “shall give rise to application of the contractual penalty or to a claim for damages”, except for duly justified causes not attributable to the supplier, in which case the parties may agree a new date (fr. XIV). The same clause requires the consumer’s right to cancel within five business days of signature to be recognised, with refund of amounts handed over — deducting only demonstrable operating expenses if that was agreed — within five to fifteen business days of written notice (fr. XXI), and requires the contract to state PROFECO’s administrative jurisdiction (fr. XXII), the date and registration number of the contract (fr. XXIII) and the limitation periods for actions relating to hidden defects and eviction under civil law (fr. XXV). Clause 6.3 adds, for the pre-construction contract, a record that the complete executive project, the architectural drawings and description of the property, the additional benefits offered and the information on mortgage or trust guarantees borne by the supplier were all exhibited.

Oversight of the standard falls to the Ministry of Economy, and verification and sanctions to PROFECO (clause 13). A developer who in 2026 does not know NOM-247, or tells you it “does not apply to investment projects”, is giving you valuable information about its level of compliance.

The project documents you must see before paying a reservation fee

The article 73 BIS list is the starting point. What follows is how to read it in the Quintana Roo context: where each document is issued, and what it means when one is missing.

Land title and registry history

The land must be titled in the name of the company signing the pre-construction contract, or of a trust whose trustee signs, and it must be free of encumbrances that will not be released before your deed. Ask for the folio real — the registry folio — and a recent certificate of freedom from encumbrances from the State Public Registry of Property and Commerce. If the land is still in the name of a third party with whom the developer “has an arrangement”, or if the antecedent is ejido land — communally held agrarian land — and the conversion to full private ownership has not been completed, you are not buying a condo: you are financing the purchase of a plot. The full procedure for reading a folio, encumbrances and agrarian history is set out in our guide to property due diligence and the Public Registry in Quintana Roo.

Quintana Roo adds a further wrinkle that aggravates the risk: the State Civil Code makes registration constitutive for contracts transferring title to real property, which “are only perfected and take full effect once registered” (arts. 3159 and 3160). A developer that has not yet recorded its own acquisition of the land is not, as against third parties, the full owner of what it is selling you.

Land use, territorial compatibility and the urban development plan

Each Riviera Maya municipality — Solidaridad for Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Benito Juárez for Cancún, Puerto Morelos — has its own Urban Development Programme, issued under the Quintana Roo Human Settlements, Territorial Planning and Urban Development Law, assigning each zone a permitted use, a housing density per hectare, land occupation and land utilisation coefficients, and a maximum height. The project must fit within those parameters. Ask for the land-use certificate or licence issued by the municipal Urban Development Department and compare the numbers against the project you are being shown: if the rendering has six storeys and the zone permits three, something has to give, and what usually gives is your fifth-floor unit.

In Tulum this control is particularly sensitive, because large areas of recent growth — Region 15, the surroundings of Aldea Zamá and La Veleta, the corridor towards the hotel zone — have at various points been subject to adjustments in urban regulation, licence reviews and suspensions, and public controversy over densities and heights. The specific position of any given plot must be confirmed with the municipal Urban Development Department at the time you buy, not from what was published years earlier. The State Condominium Property Law additionally requires, in order to record the regime, a Territorial Compatibility Certificate issued by the Secretaría de Desarrollo Territorial Urbano Sustentable, SEDETUS (art. 4). Ask for both: municipal land use and state compatibility.

The municipal construction licence

The construction licence is issued by the relevant municipality — Solidaridad, Tulum, Benito Juárez — and it is the document that separates a project from an idea. It must be current, in the name of the owning company, referring to the same plot (same cadastral key and registry folio) and to the same project (same built area and unit count) that is being sold to you. A licence for “preliminary works” or “perimeter walling” is not a licence to build the building; an expired licence, or one covering a smaller project, foreshadows an amendment that can take months.

NOM-247 requires these licences to be made available to you (clause 5.6.2) and the LFPC includes them among the mandatory disclosures (art. 73 BIS, fr. V). Do not accept “it is being processed” as an answer if you are about to pay more than a refundable reservation.

Utility feasibility: water, sewerage and power

A building in the Riviera Maya needs a potable water and sewerage feasibility letter — in Quintana Roo the state body is the Comisión de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (CAPA), and in some municipalities, including Benito Juárez and Solidaridad, the service is operated by a concessionaire that issues the feasibility letters — plus an electrical feasibility letter from the Federal Electricity Commission. In areas with no sewerage network, as much of Tulum still is, the project must have its own authorised treatment plant; the State Urban Development Actions Law contemplates solutions such as constructed wetlands or biofilters provided they comply with the applicable Mexican Official Standards. Ask for the feasibility letters and, where relevant, the treatment design: a vacation rental building without sufficient water in high season is an asset that does not operate.

Executive project, drawings and the Director Responsable de Obra

Article 73 BIS, fr. I, requires the complete executive project to be exhibited in a pre-sale; fr. VI requires the structural, architectural and installation drawings. NOM-247 adds that they must be endorsed by a responsible expert or Director Responsable de Obra. These documents let you do two things: confirm that the unit you are buying exists on the drawings with the floor area, orientation and parking you are being offered, and annex the drawings and the finishes schedule to the contract as the definition of the object. If the contract says “as per project” without attaching the project, the developer retains the freedom to change it.

Environmental permits: when SEMARNAT is involved and what a MIA is

The Riviera Maya is, environmentally, a fragile territory: low jungle over karst, cenotes and underground rivers, mangrove, coastal dune and reef. That is why environmental impact assessment is a central chapter of any pre-construction due diligence, and not a paperwork formality.

The federal rule: article 28 of the LGEEPA

Article 28 of the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection defines environmental impact assessment as the procedure by which the Ministry — SEMARNAT — sets the conditions for carrying out works that may cause ecological imbalance, and lists those requiring prior federal authorisation. Among them, directly relevant to the Riviera Maya, are “real estate developments that affect coastal ecosystems” (fr. IX), “works and activities in wetlands, coastal ecosystems, lagoons, rivers, lakes and estuaries connected to the sea, as well as on their shores or federal zones” (fr. X), land-use changes in forest areas and jungle (fr. VII) and works in federal protected natural areas (fr. XI). The law’s environmental impact regulations set out the thresholds and the exemptions.

In practice, an oceanfront project in Tulum, Akumal or Puerto Morelos, a development over mangrove or beside a coastal lagoon, or a complex clearing jungle with no prior urban use, will require an Environmental Impact Statement — Manifestación de Impacto Ambiental, or MIA — in either its particular or its regional modality, filed with SEMARNAT under procedures SEMARNAT-04-002 (particular modality) and SEMARNAT-04-003 (regional modality), submitted in person or electronically through whichever channel the Ministry has enabled, and resolved by a formal decision authorising the project subject to conditions. That decision has a validity period, describes a specific project (clearing area, number of rooms or dwellings, density) and may impose measures such as flora and fauna rescue, conservation of a percentage of native vegetation, or height restrictions.

What to ask for and how to read it

Ask for the MIA resolution, or the letter exempting the project from federal assessment where that applies, and compare the authorised project against the one being sold to you: same plot, same built area, same number of units. A resolution for “twenty villas” that became “eighty apartments” is a project with no environmental authorisation for what is actually being built. Also verify whether the project holds authorisation for land-use change on forest land where jungle clearing is involved, and whether the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (PROFEPA) has open proceedings concerning the plot. A works stoppage on environmental grounds halts the delivery schedule indefinitely and, if demolition follows, destroys the value of your deposit.

Where the plot has beach frontage, the Zona Federal Marítimo Terrestre (ZOFEMAT) — the federal maritime-terrestrial zone, a strip of shoreline that is public property and can only be occupied under federal concession — comes into play as well. The beach club you are being promised may depend on a concession title the developer does not yet hold, or that is held in someone else’s name.

The Urban Development Actions Law: urbanisation bonds and advertising rules

Since 2018 Quintana Roo has had a state Urban Development Actions Law, published in the State Official Gazette on 16 August 2018 and amended on several occasions since — most recently in 2026 — governing subdivisions, urban complexes, condominiums and the other urban development actions that require a municipal licence. It contains two rules a pre-construction buyer should know because they protect that buyer directly. Because the law has changed, ask your lawyer to work with the text currently in force at the State Congress rather than an old copy; here we describe the mechanism without tying it to specific article numbers.

The first rule is the urbanisation guarantee: where a promoter intends to transfer, sell or lease lots or units before all infrastructure or urbanisation works are complete, it must post a bond or guarantee in favour of the municipality, calculated as a percentage of the budget for those works, and before municipalisation it must additionally guarantee hidden defects in the urbanisation. The purpose is to ensure that streets, networks and public facilities get finished as approved even if the promoter stops paying. For the buyer, the operative question is simple: does the bond exist, who is the surety company, what amount is guaranteed, and with which municipal treasury was it posted? A promoter selling lots or units in a gated development still under construction who cannot produce that policy is selling outside the framework the state law requires.

The second rule concerns advertising: where lots are offered for sale, the advertising must refer to the licence for the subdivision, urban complex or condominium and to the municipality’s sales authorisation. It applies to lots in residential developments and gated communities — extremely common in Tulum, Puerto Aventuras and the corridor towards Akumal — and it is an excellent thermometer of a promoter’s compliance culture: an advertisement that identifies neither the licence nor the municipal sales authorisation tells you, before any meeting takes place, how much the regulatory framework matters to the seller. If you are buying land rather than a condo, our guide to land for sale in Tulum and the Riviera Maya goes deeper into ejidos, full domain conversion and subdivisions.

The same law, in its definitions section, describes the promoter as the individual or legal entity that, as owner or with the owner’s authorisation, applies for, promotes or carries out an urban development action, and defines municipalisation as the formal handover to the municipality of the development’s publicly destined assets — roads, networks, donated areas. Ask what stage the development containing your unit has reached: a gated community that has not been municipalised leaves owners paying for services that ought to be public, and the promise that “the municipality will take it over soon” depends on completion certificates the promoter must actually obtain.

The condominium regime: why “it is in process” is not good enough

When you buy a condo pre-construction, what eventually gets deeded into your name is an exclusive-property unit within a condominium property regime. That regime does not exist until the developer creates it by public deed and records it. The Condominium Property Law for the State of Quintana Roo regulates the process precisely.

To create the regime before the municipal authority, the owner must declare its intention in a public deed containing, among other items, the construction licence, the description of the property and of each unit, the undivided percentage interest and the bylaws (art. 9). To record it in the Public Registry of Property and Commerce, the owner must first obtain the SEDETUS Territorial Compatibility Certificate and submit the title deed, a certificate of freedom from encumbrances, the municipal land-use certificate, the construction licence, municipal authorisation of the regime, completion of works — or a copy of the bond guaranteeing completion in favour of the municipality — the predial (municipal property tax) paid up to date, certification of measurements and boundaries, and the cadastral card (art. 4). The constitutive deed, the deeds transferring title and any other acts affecting ownership of these properties must be recorded in the Public Registry (art. 10).

Three practical consequences for a pre-sale:

1. You cannot take title to your condo until the regime is recorded, and the regime cannot be recorded without the construction licence, municipal authorisation and either completion of works or a bond. The progress of these filings is the best measure of the real time to closing — more reliable than the construction progress percentage reported to you.
2. Your unit’s undivided percentage interest — which determines your vote in the owners’ assembly and your share of the fees — must match between the pre-construction contract and the constitutive deed. Ask for the contract to fix it, or to set a range with a right of rescission if it changes materially.
3. Article 12 of the law requires every contract for the acquisition of a unit to record that the purchaser was given a plain copy of the constitutive deed and the condominium bylaws. In a pre-sale, that translates into requesting the draft bylaws at contract stage: that is where the rules on vacation rentals, pets, commercial uses and the initial fee you will pay from handover are set out. Our guide to the condominium regime and maintenance fees in Playa del Carmen explains how to assess a set of bylaws and a condominium budget.

A developer planning to operate the building as a condo-hotel or through its own management company will often reserve broad powers in the bylaws — mandatory management for a number of years, commissions on rental income, commercial areas excluded from the undivided interest. None of that is unlawful if it is agreed transparently, but it must be in the documents before you sign, not appear in the constitutive deed a year later.

Payment structure, deposits and where your money should sit

The payment schedule is where the risk in a pre-sale turns into hard cash. It is worth analysing at three levels: how much you pay and when, who you pay it to, and what protects that money while the building does not yet exist.

Typical schedules and what they mean (illustrative example)

As an illustrative example rather than a market figure, a common Riviera Maya structure combines a reservation of a few thousand dollars, a down payment on signature that tends to sit around one third of the price, monthly instalments or construction-milestone payments during the build, and a final payment against delivery or closing. The ratio between what you pay during construction and what you pay at the end is your main negotiating lever: the larger the final payment, the smaller your exposure to execution risk. A structure demanding eighty or ninety per cent of the price before the structure even exists transfers practically all the risk to the buyer.

The LFPC requires payment options to be presented with the total amount payable under each (art. 73 BIS, fr. IX), the price to be stated in national currency even if it is also expressed in dollars (art. 73 TER, fr. V) and, where no exchange rate is agreed, the rate at the place and date of payment to govern. In a market that quotes in dollars and invoices in pesos, the exchange-rate clause can move the final price significantly; ask for it in writing. This matters particularly for Canadian and British buyers, who are carrying a second currency conversion on top of the peso–dollar question and whose effective cost can drift substantially over a two-year build.

Deposits and reservations: the NOM-247 rule

Clause 4.4 of NOM-247 requires the supplier to issue a receipt for the deposit and to inform you, before receiving it, that it will be credited against the price, what rights and obligations it generates, and the mechanisms, terms, deadlines and penalties for its return, which must be made through the same payment method. A reservation that is “non-refundable” by definition, with no period to review documents, runs against the spirit of the standard and is a practice you should refuse. The reasonable structure is a reservation that is refundable during a documentary review period and becomes firm once you have verified permits and contract.

Who you pay: the company, a trust, or escrow

The simplest and most ignored rule: pay only the legal entity that signs the contract and owns the land, or the trustee of the trust that owns it. Never to a director’s personal account, to a “marketing company” distinct from the owner, to a broker, or to an offshore company “for tax convenience”. Every link you insert between your money and the holder of the land is a link that can break.

Two structures substantially improve buyer protection:

• Escrow or an independent holding account with a neutral third party, releasing funds to the developer against verified construction milestones. This is common where the seller works with US and Canadian buyers and is explained in detail in our guide to escrow and safe payments when buying property in Mexico.
• An administration and guarantee fideicomiso: the land and the pre-sale cash flows are contributed to a trust with an authorised trustee institution, which administers the funds according to a budget and defined purposes and which, in the better designs, releases money to the contractor only against progress certified by an independent supervisor.

The development trust: what it is and what it is not

The General Law of Credit Instruments and Operations defines the fideicomiso as the act by which the settlor transfers to a trustee institution the ownership or title of assets or rights to be applied to lawful and determinate purposes (art. 381), and establishes that only institutions expressly authorised by law may act as trustees (art. 385). A well-built development trust means the land is no longer on the developer’s balance sheet — and therefore does not answer for its general debts — and that your payments enter a segregated estate earmarked for building that specific building.

What it does not mean: that the project will be finished. The trustee administers; it does not build and it does not guarantee. That is why you should read the trust agreement, or at least its summary: who the trustee is, who instructs payments, which technical committee decides, whether there is an independent works supervisor, what happens to the funds if construction stops, and whether buyers are second-tier beneficiaries with a right to a refund. A “trust” in which the developer is settlor, beneficiary and sole instructing party is a bank account with an elegant name.

This development trust is distinct from the restricted-zone fideicomiso a foreign buyer needs to acquire the unit within the coastal strip. The two can coexist: the building is constructed under an administration trust and, at closing, your condo is transferred to the trustee bank of your own fideicomiso. The mechanics, costs and permits of that second instrument are explained in our fideicomiso bank trust guide for foreign buyers.

Developer financing and construction loans

If the developer offers you direct financing, NOM-247 requires it to disclose the cash price, the number and frequency of payments, the interest rate, fees and the right to prepay (clause 5.6.8), and the LFPC requires it to detail the type of credit and the payment projection (art. 73 BIS, fr. X). Ask as well how the construction itself is financed: a bridge loan from a Mexican bank means an institution has already run its own due diligence on the project and is supervising progress, which is a positive signal — but it also means a mortgage over the land that must be released unit by unit at closing. Article 73 BIS, fr. II, requires those encumbrances to be disclosed and released when your deed is signed. Credit alternatives for the buyer are compared in our guide to mortgages and financing for foreigners in Mexico.

The contract: promise to sell, adhesion contract and the clauses that matter

Three instruments coexist in the Riviera Maya: the letter of intent or reservation, the promise-to-sell contract or pre-construction adhesion contract, and the final public deed before a notario público. The second is where you live for one, two or three years, and it deserves professional review. These are the clauses that decide your position.

A determinate object

The unit identified by number, level, private and terrace floor area, parking space, storage unit and undivided percentage interest, with drawings and a finishes schedule annexed and signed. A defined area tolerance — a small variation is normal in construction — with proportional price adjustment and a right to rescind without penalty if the reduction exceeds an agreed threshold. “Equivalent materials” clauses must be limited to comparable brand and quality, not to any substitute at all.

Price, currency and schedule

Total price, payment method and additional outlays (art. 73 TER, fr. VII); national currency and an exchange-rate rule (fr. V); a schedule with dates or verifiable milestones. If the schedule is tied to construction milestones, define who certifies each milestone and what happens if it slips: you should not be paying for the fourth-floor slab because the calendar says so when the slab does not exist.

Delivery date, tolerance and reciprocal penalties

The delivery date must be a date, not “approximately the second half of the year”. Article 73 TER, fr. XII, requires the delivery date to be fixed and releases the supplier only where it fully proves an act of God or force majeure directly affecting it. NOM-247 adds that a delay generates a contractual penalty or a damages claim. Serious contracts agree a bounded grace period — some months — after which a contractual penalty runs, expressed as a percentage of the price or of amounts paid per month of delay, plus a maximum delay beyond which the buyer may rescind with a full refund plus penalty.

The law requires penalties to be “reciprocal and equivalent” (LFPC, art. 73 TER, fr. IX; NOM-247, clause 6, fr. XI). If the contract penalises you with the loss of twenty per cent for being late on one instalment and penalises the developer with “an extension without liability”, the clause violates that principle. The Quintana Roo Civil Code, for its part, allows a judge to reduce a contractual penalty where the obligation was partly performed or the penalty is manifestly excessive (art. 291), and provides that the creditor need not prove damage in order to claim it (art. 290).

Force majeure: narrow, not generic

Hurricanes, pandemics and regulatory changes have all been invoked in the Riviera Maya as grounds for delay. The force majeure clause should list specific events, require written notice within a deadline, limit the extension to the time strictly affected, and expressly exclude lack of liquidity, contractor problems and the absence of permits the developer should have held before selling. The law only grants relief where the event affects “the supplier itself or the property directly” (art. 73 TER, fr. XII); a contract that converts any setback into force majeure has been drafted not to be performed.

Changes to the project and to common areas

Reserve the right to modify common areas or amenities only where an authority requires it, with an obligation of equivalent substitution and a right of rescission if an essential amenity is removed. The rooftop pool, the gym and the beach club form part of the price you are paying; they must form part of the contract.

Assignment of rights

Many pre-construction buyers plan to resell before handover. Check whether the contract permits assignment, at what commission and whether the developer’s consent is required. Bear in mind that assigning rights under a promise-to-sell contract has tax consequences for the assignor and that the assignee inherits your obligations and your risks — a point US buyers accustomed to straightforward contract flips in Florida frequently underestimate.

Cancellation and refunds

The LFPC requires a cancellation procedure with its implications (art. 73 TER, fr. XI) and NOM-247 requires disclosure of refund deadlines and penalties. Distinguish three scenarios: cancellation caused by the developer (full refund plus penalty, within a short deadline); cancellation caused by the buyer (a reasonable, non-disproportionate retention from amounts paid); and cancellation for regulatory impossibility (refusal of a licence or of the MIA), which should be treated as the developer’s fault because it is a risk the developer should have cleared. Fix the refund deadline in days, not “when the unit is resold”.

Earnest money and contractual penalties in the Quintana Roo Civil Code

If the contract characterises the reservation as arras, or earnest money, the State Civil Code provides that if the party who gave them breaches, the counterparty may rescind and keep them, and if the party who received them breaches, the other may demand rescission or performance and the return of the earnest money “plus an equal amount”, in addition to damages (art. 296). That statutory reciprocity is a good benchmark for negotiating the developer’s penalty.

Jurisdiction, language and forum

The registered contract must confer administrative jurisdiction on PROFECO (LFPC, art. 86) and must be in Spanish, with that version prevailing over any translation (art. 73 TER, fr. II). If you are a foreign buyer and you sign an English version, ask for the registered Spanish version and have a lawyer confirm that they match. Private arbitration clauses seated abroad, or waivers of PROFECO’s jurisdiction, are warning signs.

Post-handover warranties written into the contract

Although the five, three and one-year warranty is statutory and operates whether or not the contract mentions it, it is worth incorporating expressly, together with the claims procedure, the response deadlines and the identification of who answers — the selling company, the construction company, or both jointly and severally. A single-purpose vehicle that dissolves once the last unit is sold leaves the warranty without a debtor; require the parent company or the builder to be jointly and severally bound.

How to verify the developer: track record, deliveries and corporate structure

A project can hold every permit and still fail because of its promoter. Due diligence on the developer is different from due diligence on the property, and it is done with external sources.

Identify the real legal entity

The brand you see on the hoarding is not the entity that signs. Ask for the exact corporate name, its RFC (Mexican tax ID), its incorporation deed, its bylaws and the powers of attorney of whoever will sign the contract, and verify that this same company is the owner of the land on the registry folio. In the Riviera Maya it is standard for each project to be developed through a single-purpose vehicle; that is not illegitimate, but it means the reputation of the “group” does not legally answer for your contract unless the parent signs as joint obligor or guarantor. Check as well that the company is recorded in the Public Registry of Commerce and that the powers of attorney have not been revoked.

Consult PROFECO’s public sources

In PROFECO’s Buró Comercial (burocomercial.profeco.gob.mx) you can search by trade name or corporate name for the number of complaints received, their status and the main grounds of complaint. In the Public Registry of Adhesion Contracts you verify whether the contract is registered and under which corporate name. The absence of registration and the presence of complaints for failure to deliver are two objective data points no brochure can contradict.

Verify past deliveries, not promises

Ask for the list of delivered projects with addresses, promised delivery year and actual delivery year. Visit at least two: look at the state of the construction three or five years on, talk to the building manager and to owners about timelines, hidden defects, warranty response and whether the developer still controls the management. Look up the registry folio of those buildings: was the condominium regime recorded? Were the units deeded to buyers, or are they still in the developer’s name? A developer with three “delivered” projects but no recorded regimes has a problem you will inherit.

Financial capacity and construction funding

NOM-247 requires the supplier to have sufficient financial capacity to handle claims and compensation (clause 4.6). You have no right to audit its financial statements, but you can ask how the works are funded: own capital, a bank bridge loan, a trust holding pre-sale cash flows, or a mixture. A project depending one hundred per cent on pre-sale cash flow to build is, by definition, a project whose schedule depends on the pace of sales — and in a market with abundant supply, that pace can fall.

The technical team

Who is the construction company, who is the Director Responsable de Obra, who is the external supervisor if there is one, which architect signs the project. Firms and licensed professionals with a track record in Solidaridad and Tulum have licences, municipal registrations and buildings you can go and visit. Omissions here tend to coincide with omissions in the permits.

The sales agents and brokers selling to you

NOM-247 requires the sales agent to hold a credential issued by the supplier and establishes that the information the agent gives you is deemed authorised by the developer (clause 5.5). Ask for the credential and, if you are buying through an external broker, ask for the marketing agreement authorising it. Verbal promises — yields, delivery dates, amenities — count as advertising under article 32 of the LFPC, but only what is in the signed contract is straightforward to enforce. Our directory of developers in the Riviera Maya gathers factual information about companies and projects, without implying any recommendation or affiliation.

Delays, project changes and what to do when something goes wrong

Even with good due diligence, a proportion of pre-sales run late. Knowing in advance what routes you have prevents impulsive decisions.

Document from day one

Keep every payment receipt, the registered contract and its annexes, the advertising you were sold on (dated screenshots of the website, brochures, renderings, messages from the sales agent), the progress reports and all written communication. Advertising is enforceable: article 7 of the LFPC obliges the supplier to honour the prices, warranties, terms, dates and “other applicable conditions” it has offered, and article 32 requires advertising to be truthful and verifiable.

Formal demand letter

Where a delay exceeds the agreed tolerance, send a written demand with proof of receipt, requiring application of the contractual penalty and setting a deadline. Many developers settle at this stage because they know the next step is public.

PROFECO complaint and conciliation

Article 99 of the LFPC allows a claim to be filed in writing, orally, by telephone or electronically, individually or collectively — buyers in the same building can act together where there is identity of cause and of supplier. The agency summons the parties to a conciliation hearing, which must be held at least four days after notifying the supplier and may be conducted remotely (art. 111). If an agreement is reached it becomes enforceable; if not, PROFECO may offer arbitration or leave the judicial route open, and in parallel may impose administrative sanctions on the supplier. The compensation under article 92 TER — not less than twenty per cent of the price paid — and that under 73 QUINTUS are both part of the toolkit.

The civil route

Rescission with refund and damages, or specific performance, are claimed before the civil courts of Quintana Roo, with the advantage of the agreed penalty clause, which does not require proof of loss (State Civil Code, art. 290). It is a slower and more expensive route, and its effectiveness depends on the developer having attachable assets — another reason to have paid the company that owns the land rather than an empty marketing entity.

When the project stops entirely

If works halt because the developer runs out of liquidity, the buyers’ position depends on the structure. With an administration trust, buyers as beneficiaries may have the right to have the trustee liquidate the estate and return funds with priority; without a trust, they are unsecured creditors in any insolvency proceeding, ranking behind secured creditors such as the bridge-loan bank. A lawyer experienced in Quintana Roo should assess whether to organise the buyers collectively from the start of the crisis.

Red flags: signals that should stop the transaction

Any one of these signals justifies pausing the purchase until it is clarified; several together justify walking away.

• The land is not titled in the name of the selling company, or the antecedent is ejido land without full domain recorded.
• There is no current construction licence, or the existing one covers a different project in area, storeys or unit count.
• The project is oceanfront, over mangrove or on jungle and the developer produces no environmental impact resolution, or says it “does not need one”.
• Advertising for lots does not identify the licence or the municipal sales authorisation required by the State Urban Development Actions Law, or the promoter cannot produce the urbanisation bond when selling before the works are complete.
• The contract is not registered with PROFECO, or the one handed to you does not match the registered version.
• Payments are requested to individuals’ accounts, to companies other than the owner, in cash, or in cryptocurrency “to avoid fees”.
• The reservation is non-refundable with no documentary review period.
• Asymmetric penalties: the buyer forfeits substantial percentages; the developer merely “may extend”.
• An indeterminate delivery date, or a force majeure clause that includes missing permits or missing financing.
• Waiver of PROFECO, arbitration abroad, or a contract only in English.
• Pressure of the “only two units left” or “the price goes up on Monday” kind before any documents have been handed over.
• Promises of guaranteed returns or of “recovering your investment” within a specific period; no developer controls the future occupancy of a market.
• Earlier projects by the same group with no recorded condominium regime, or with units still undeeded years after handover.
• Condominium bylaws that are not shown, or mandatory developer management for long periods with commissions on rental income.
• The sales agent has neither a credential nor a marketing agreement authorising them.

Pre-construction due diligence checklist: thirty verifications

Work through this list with your lawyer before the reservation becomes firm. It is organised in blocks so you can delegate each one.

Ownership and registry

1. Registry folio for the land in the name of the selling company or trust.
2. Recent certificate of freedom from encumbrances; identification of bridge-loan mortgages and a commitment to release at closing.
3. Registry history with no ejido origin pending full domain conversion.
4. Predial and, where applicable, water charges up to date.

Urban and environmental permits

5. Municipal land-use certificate or licence compatible with the project’s density, height and occupation/utilisation coefficients.
6. SEDETUS Territorial Compatibility Certificate.
7. Current construction licence, same plot, same project.
8. Municipal authorisation of the condominium regime, or the status of that filing.
9. SEMARNAT MIA resolution or a certificate that none is required; consistency with the project being sold.
10. Forest land-use change authorisation where clearing is involved.
11. ZOFEMAT concession where there is beach frontage or a promised beach club.
12. Feasibility letters for water, sewerage or a treatment plant, and for electricity.
13. The urbanisation bond required by the State Urban Development Actions Law where lots or units are sold before urbanisation is complete: policy, surety company, amount and beneficiary municipality.

Project

14. Complete executive project and drawings endorsed by the Director Responsable de Obra; the unit identifiable on the drawings.
15. Finishes schedule and specifications annexed to the contract.
16. The unit’s undivided percentage interest and the draft condominium bylaws.

Developer

17. Incorporation deed, bylaws, RFC and current powers of attorney of the signatory.
18. Consistency between the owning company, the selling company and the company receiving payments.
19. Search in PROFECO’s Buró Comercial.
20. Search for the contract in the Public Registry of Adhesion Contracts.
21. Visits to two earlier projects and verification of their condominium regimes in the Public Registry.
22. Identification of the construction company, the Director Responsable de Obra and any external supervisor.
23. Source of construction funding and existence of an administration trust with an independent supervisor.

Contract and payments

24. Text identical to the model registered with PROFECO; the Spanish version prevailing.
25. Price in national currency with a clear exchange-rate rule; schedule tied to verifiable milestones.
26. A certain delivery date, bounded tolerance, reciprocal contractual penalty and a right of rescission for excessive delay.
27. Narrow force majeure, excluding permits and the developer’s liquidity.
28. Cancellation procedure and refund deadlines expressed in days; refundable reservation during the review period.
29. Five, three and one-year warranties with an identified joint and several debtor.
30. Payment account verified in person with the developer through a channel other than email, to guard against impersonation fraud.

How the pre-sale connects to the notarial closing, handover and warranties

If the process ends well, a pre-sale concludes in two acts separated in time: physical handover of the unit, and signature of the escritura pública — the public deed — before a Quintana Roo notario público, followed by its recording in the Public Registry. Between the two there is usually the recording of the condominium regime and, for foreign buyers, the constitution of the fideicomiso or the obtaining of the corresponding permit.

At physical handover it is worth carrying out a technical inspection with a system-by-system checklist — plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, joinery, finishes — and drawing up a handover record with photographic evidence documenting outstanding items. That record is the starting point for calculating the article 73 QUÁTER warranties. The detail of the procedure is in our guide to new condo handover and hidden defects.

At closing, the notario will verify that the condominium regime is recorded, that the unit is free of encumbrances — including partial release of the bridge-loan mortgage, if there was one — that the municipal property acquisition tax (ISAI, impuesto sobre adquisición de inmuebles) and the registry fees have been paid, and — as a matter of notarial practice and because most bylaws require it — that a no-outstanding-fees certificate has been issued by the condominium administration. The costs, timelines and preventive notices involved in closing are described in our guide to the notarial process and closing a purchase in Quintana Roo. Bear in mind that until that moment your right over the condo is personal, against the developer, and not a right in rem enforceable against third parties: the State Civil Code does not recognise transfer of title until registration.

If you are evaluating specific projects, you can browse the supply of developments for sale in Tulum and developments for sale in Playa del Carmen and apply the checklist above to each one. And if you would rather we reviewed a project’s documentation with your lawyer before you pay a reservation, get in touch: due diligence on a developer costs a fraction of what a deposit trapped in a halted construction site costs.

Frequently asked questions

Is buying pre-construction in Tulum riskier than in Playa del Carmen?

The legal framework is identical in both municipalities; the difference is context. Tulum has a higher proportion of land with an ejido antecedent, recently developed areas with frequent regulatory change, lower sewerage coverage and greater environmental pressure from jungle, cenotes and coastline — which multiplies the number of checklist items that can fail. Playa del Carmen has a more consolidated urban fabric and a municipality, Solidaridad, with more years of practice in licences and condominium regimes. That does not make any Playa pre-sale safe or any Tulum pre-sale unviable: it makes verifying environmental permits and registry history considerably more important in the second.

What percentage of the price is reasonable to pay before handover?

There is no statutory percentage. As a risk-management principle, the larger the share of the price you pay against handover or closing, the smaller your exposure. A structure demanding almost the entire price before the structure exists makes you the project’s principal financier without the security a bank would require. If the developer has a bridge loan or an administration trust with an independent supervisor, tolerance for advance payments can be higher; with neither of those structures, it should be lower.

Does the five-year warranty apply if I buy to rent on vacation platforms?

Article 73 of the LFPC refers to housing designated for residential use. A residential condo in a housing building fits that category regardless of whether the owner rents it seasonally, and developers register it as housing with the municipal authority. The debate can arise with products marketed expressly as hotel or “condo-hotel” units under commercial licences; in those cases review with your lawyer which regime applies, and require the warranty in the contract even where the statutory position could be argued.

What happens if the developer changes the project after I have signed?

Substantial changes — floor area, unit count, removal of amenities, change of use — without your consent constitute a breach of the contract and of the advertising you were sold on (LFPC, arts. 7 and 32). Your options are to demand delivery of what was offered, to accept the change with compensation, or to rescind with a refund plus penalty. The more precisely the object is defined in the contract and its annexes, the stronger your position; that is why the drawings and the finishes schedule must be signed by both parties.

Do I need a lawyer in addition to the notary?

Yes — in a pre-sale, even more so than when buying a finished property. The notario intervenes at the end, at the deed, and verifies the legality of that act; the notary does not review the promise-to-sell contract, the project permits or the developer’s solvency on your behalf two years earlier. A lawyer practising in Quintana Roo real estate development does exactly that, and the fee is a small insurance premium against the size of the deposits you are about to hand over.