Mexico, to Attract US Retirees, May Ease Limits on Landownership

Mexican legislators, seeking to make their country more attractive to U.S. retirees, may soon lift a major impediment for foreigners who want to own a piece of Mexico’s Pacific or Caribbean coasts.

For the first time in nearly a century, lawmakers are moving to allow non-Mexicans to buy coastal real estate and hold the deeds to it, without having to set up bank trusts or find silent Mexican partners.

Proponents of the change say it pushes Mexico toward the modern era, and is a sign of ebbing nationalism under President Enrique Pena Nieto. They say it would help Mexico compete with Southern U.S. states and tropical Central America for U.S. retirees seeking spots in the sun and by the sea.

The proposed amendment to the Mexican Constitution sailed through the Chamber of Deputies on a 356-119 vote April 23, and is now before the Senate.

But opponents are still rallying, charging in a petition campaign that the change may condemn Mexicans to saying goodbye to ocean views.

“If just 1 of every 20 U.S. millionaires buys a house with 22 meters (72 feet) of beachfront, no Mexican will see the sea again,” the petition drive says, drawing on the nation’s historic allergy to foreign ownership of its resources.

The allergy has its roots in land grabs in the 19th and 20th centuries. After the 1917 Mexican Revolution, legislators who drafted the nation’s constitution, fearing a new invasion by land or sea, barred foreigners from owning land within 31 miles of the coast or 62 miles of any border. Those strips of territory became known as the restricted zones.

Foreign investment laws were modified in the 1990s, allowing foreigners to buy coastal properties through trusts in which banks hold the titles. The 50-year trusts allow trustees to buy, sell and pass property to heirs without restrictions.

But many foreigners found it nerve-wracking to plunk down money for properties but never caress the deeds themselves, putting a brake on land sales.

“I have many clients who say, ‘Why am I going to buy something and have it in the bank’s name?’” said Roberto Rivas, a real estate broker in Tulum, a high-profile tourist destination south of Cancun on the Caribbean.

“Maybe 40 percent of potential buyers have backed away because of lack of clarity that clouds their understanding of what a bank trust is,” echoed Bill Barvitski, an American real estate agent in Puerto Penasco, a resort also known as Rocky Point, on the Sea of Cortez, near Arizona.

The Foreign Relations Secretariat, which must approve each trust, says 30,755 such trusts were set up from 2006 through early this year, presumably all in the restricted zones.

If the Senate approves the proposal, lawmakers in a majority of Mexico’s 32 state legislatures would have to OK it before it’s enshrined in the constitution.

In some coastal resort areas near the United States, real estate agents say the change would boost sales of condos and homes to foreigners.

“I see the increase in sales to non-nationals almost doubling,” Barvitski said.