No foreigner can acquire land directly in Mexico. It is something that is mentioned in the Mexican constitution. So what is the way for foreigners to acquire land? In this region in particular we call it restricted zone. It´s an area of land that comes from the ocean in 50 km, from the borders in 100km, so wittin that region foreigners cannot acquire land directly, it needs to be done through a trust. That trust in particular is formalized with a Mexican trustee bank. That trust is for 50 years, renewal for the same period of time. So prior to its´expiry the trustee bank will let you know that it is time to extend the terms for another 50 years.
The main difference between a Mexican and a foreigner is obviously the part of the trust, but as well you need to pay annual trustee fees that arise on a case-to-case basis depending on the bank, which can be from $400-600 the annual fee. Let´s say that you create the trust and you are designated as the main beneficiary. In the trust you can designate to beneficiaries, which can be anyone- your spouse, children, siblings, whoever you want. If something happens to you, if you die, those individuals will show up in front of the trustee bank and let them know that he passed away and they will officially request that those beneficiaries are recognized as the main beneficiaries.Â
There´s another option, which is creating a Mexican company. The Mexican company is only advised if you are going to be buying properties for commercial reasons. Let´s say that you are going to be buying properties. Even though you could create trust per property it might be convenient to create a Mexican corporation for tax reasons and for other factors. If you are going to be creating some other business.Â
Read : Bank trust vs Mexican Corporation
However, if you´re going to be buying one or two properties I would always advise that you buy through a Mexican trust because from the financial perspective it´s more expensive with a Mexican corporation than having the 3 trusts. Just to give you an example, if you create a Mexican corporation you have to declare monthly and one annual tax declaration, and for those purposes you have to hire an accountant. Usually they charge around $100 a month.
So let´s say you have 2 trusts then that means you would pay $800 and you don´t have to worry about anything because you pay upfront and you don´t worry about anything the full year. However, if you have the Mexican corporation you have to be paying on a monthly basis. You have to sign the declarations. There´s a lot of back office and administrative work that you would have to do and it might not even be worth your while.
