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Cuba Realty

Real Estate in Cuba

 This website is being developed to feature a cooperative listing service similar to the Multiple Listing Service in the US.

Cuban based Realtors and off-island Realtors will be able to list their Cuban real estate, Cuban homes for sale, Cuban land for sale, Cuban condos for sale or rent along with Cuban vacation rentals.

If you are looking for lodging in Cuban hotels or casa particular (Cuban private homes) rentals, please visit our Cuba casas sister site. 

Cuban Cigars  

Since all Cuban land is owned or at least controlled by the Cuban government, this listing service is not a viable business model until the Cuban government allows for private property ownership.

Will private property ownership in Cuba happen?

The Cuban government has passed laws to allow for 99 year leases on Cuban land so non-US based companies have begun to develop golf course resorts and marinas in Cuba that will offer hundreds of villas and condo units for sale in Cuba.

It is important to note that NO groundbreaking on Cuban land has started (article from November 2010) and STILL there are no Cuban golf course development projects started yet in Cuba.

It is unclean if this real estate development project in Cuba is still taking investors' deposits.

Way back in 2005, our sister site the Havana Journal posted an article "How to invest in Cuban real estate - wait" and it generated 90 comments from readers.

Update early 2013

A new realty group called Point 2 Cuba has been created in Havana and now has many listings of homes for sale in Cuba and the real estate market in Cuba is growing.

There is a good summary of Cuban property rights here.

An interesting Cuban real estate site called Behind the Facade in Spanish has hundreds of homes for sale in Cuba.

From November 2011 - The Havana Journal has posted this article, Cuba real estate purchase and sales now allowed in Cuba by PAUL HAVEN of the Associated Press and there have been many updates posted to the original article...

Cuba announced Thursday it will allow real estate to be bought and sold for the first time since the early days of the revolution, the most important reform yet in a series of free-market changes under President Raul Castro.

The law, which takes effect Nov. 10, applies to citizens living in Cuba and permanent residents only, according to a red-letter headline on the front page of Thursday’s Communist Party daily Granma and details published in the government’s Official Gazette.

The law limits Cubans to owning one home in the city and another in the country, an effort to prevent the accumulation of large real estate holdings. It requires that all real estate transactions be made through Cuban bank accounts so that they can be better regulated, and says the transactions will be subject to bank commissions.

Real Estate Swaps in Cuba

Cubans are allowed to "swap" their houses and apartments through a very complicated listing and closing process. No money is supposed to change hands.

As of a recent posting at the official Cuban government website for real estate swaps, the Bolsa de Permutas or Swap Exchange, there are thousands of houses and apartments listed for swap in Cuba. 

The Bolsa de Permutas is a Cuban government owned and operated website designed for Cuban citizens in conjunction with the Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda or National Housing Institute.

A typical listing may look like this:

• Offers for swap: Apartment
• Construction is masonry and in good condition
• Third floor with dining room, two bedrooms and one bathroom, no garage
• Natural gas from street, has balcony and patio
• Located in Havana at Plaza de la Revolución
• Seeking three bedroom house outside of Havana city.

The unofficial, independently owned and operated Se Permuta website is the most active Cuba house and apartment swap site in Cuba but "house agents" are the real Cuba real estate agents.

US Embargo

So, it's not the Cuban government making real estate development and investing in Cuba, the US Embargo would have to be lifted by a vote in the US Congress in order to let Americans buy Cuban real estate.

In the mean time, see what you are missing in this video of the Malecon seawall in Havana or you can search the Havana Journal for Cuba real estate news.

If you need to do a title search, would like to find out about seized Cuban property claim or have other legal issues, we offer a Cuba legal referral service that helps match people to attorneys with experience in your area of interest. We can also help you find an OFAC or Cuban law attorney.

Cuba Real Estate News

By Graham Norwood | Financial Times

You learn a lot about modern Cuba by driving the scenic Via Blanca highway between Havana and the north coast resort of Varadero.

My trip one late May afternoon starts on the wave-lashed Malecón, a 7km boulevard separating the capital – both its restored colonial quarter and its communist-designed tower blocks – from the Florida Straits.

Moving on from the sometimes dilapidated nearby suburbs into the outer ones, each junction is lined with workers and school children sweating in the 35ºC heat, trying to hitch-hike home to their villages.

Soon, the coast road changes from motorway to pot-holed track and back again, ensuring the 140km trip takes a full two hours. But it’s worth it: an occasional industrial plant, village or roadside bar, a few small oil wells, then mostly blue water on one side, lush green countryside and distant mountains on the other, and many fine, empty sandy beaches.

Entering Varadero, modernity immediately takes over.