Is it a good time to buy property in Tulum now?

Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Tulum

Has Tulum’s property boom already ended?

Yes. Tulum’s property boom has clearly ended, and today’s market gives buyers far more leverage than it did a few years ago.

The clearest evidence comes from an InfoHabitat analysis built with Softec and Mexican tourism data. Homes under construction in Tulum jumped from 1,466 in 2017 to 13,266 in 2023. By 2023, 6,340 homes were being offered for sale, almost twice the 3,243 recorded in 2019.

Demand eventually stopped keeping up. Annual sales dropped from 3,487 homes in 2023 to 1,711 in 2025, a fall of roughly 51% in only two years. Monthly sales per development also slipped from 1.4 units in 2022 to 0.9 in 2025.

At the 2025 sales pace, the 6,340 units that had been on the market in 2023 were equivalent to roughly 3.7 years of annual sales. The exact inventory has changed since then, but the mismatch was enormous.

The Tulum market that rewarded developers for launching almost anything with a pool, jungle branding and an Airbnb projection is gone.

Indicator	Earlier level	Later level	Change	What happened
Homes under construction	1,466 in 2017	13,266 in 2023	About 9×	Construction exploded
Homes offered for sale	3,243 in 2019	6,340 in 2023	+95%	Inventory nearly doubled
Annual home sales	3,487 in 2023	1,711 in 2025	-51%	Demand fell hard
Monthly sales per development	1.4 in 2022	0.9 in 2025	-36%	Projects are selling more slowly

Are Tulum property prices actually cheaper now?

Yes, Tulum property prices have softened, but buyers should forget the idea of one big market-wide crash.

Propiedades.com currently shows median apartment asking prices across Tulum about 2% lower than in early 2025. Considering how badly transactions have fallen, that is a surprisingly small headline correction.

The neighborhood data are much messier. Aldea Zama apartment prices are down roughly 0.4%. La Veleta is up about 9.1%, while some other submarkets have weakened considerably. A citywide average can hide a lot.

Another dataset, RED Search, found a much larger drop when comparing available condo inventory: average asking prices moved from roughly $321,000 in early 2024 to $283,000 one year later. Average prices for properties recorded as sold fell from around $283,000 to $245,000.

InfoHabitat adds another useful piece. Tulum home prices increased 39% between 2021 and 2025, while construction costs rose 47%. Developers therefore had limited room to cut sticker prices aggressively. Some responded by making apartments smaller, offering payment incentives or simply accepting much slower sales.

So far, the correction has happened through a mix of lower prices, negotiation, smaller units, incentives and sellers waiting longer for buyers. That helps explain why the collapse in sales has been much more dramatic than the decline visible in broad asking-price indexes.

We still would not call the absolute bottom. Transactions remain weak enough that another round of seller capitulation is possible, especially in generic condo projects with dozens of near-identical competitors.

Tulum apartment market	Median asking price	Median size	Asking price/m²	Change since early 2025
Aldea Zama	MXN 5.03M	109 m²	MXN 46,100	-0.4%
La Veleta	MXN 3.25M	75 m²	MXN 43,200	+9.1%
Tulum overall	—	—	—	About -2.0%

Can buyers really negotiate in Tulum now?

Yes. Buyers currently have real negotiating power in Tulum because there are simply too many alternatives chasing too few transactions.

Propiedades.com recently counted 1,715 active apartment listings in Aldea Zama alone and another 1,061 in La Veleta. Those figures should be treated as portal inventory rather than a perfect count of unique homes, but they show how much choice buyers have.

That changes the conversation with a seller.

A buyer looking for a one-bedroom investment condo in Aldea Zama can compare dozens of finished buildings, resale units, furnished properties and developer inventory before making an offer. Walking away from one apartment rarely means losing the only acceptable option.

This is particularly useful when negotiating older investor-owned units. Some owners bought during the boom expecting rapid appreciation and unusually high Airbnb returns. Their expectations can still be anchored to that period even when current resale competition says otherwise.

Today, one of the biggest advantages a Tulum buyer has is the ability to keep saying no until the price makes sense.

Which parts of Tulum make the most sense to buy now?

Aldea Zama is currently the safer all-round bet, while La Veleta and Region 15 can offer better value if we choose the exact street and building carefully.

Aldea Zama has several advantages that matter more now than they did during the boom. Much of the area is already built, access is easier to judge, commercial activity is established and buyers can compare real operating buildings instead of future master plans.

Current Propiedades.com data put the median apartment asking price around MXN 5.03 million, or roughly MXN 46,100 per square meter. Prices have barely moved since early 2025 despite the wider slowdown.

La Veleta is considerably cheaper at about MXN 3.25 million for the median apartment, or MXN 43,200 per square meter. The trade-off is much more uneven infrastructure and huge competing supply. Two condos that appear identical on a listing portal can feel completely different once we look at their road, electricity setup, surrounding construction and walking access.

Region 15 has the same problem at a larger scale. Parts of the area now work reasonably well, while others still feel like development moved faster than roads and services.

This is one place where paying slightly more for something boring can make sense. A completed apartment on a functioning street with established neighbors has become easier to defend than an isolated jungle project promising what the surrounding area may look like five years from now.

Is tourism in Tulum still strong enough to support property demand?

Tulum still attracts a huge number of tourists, but tourism is currently weaker than the amount of accommodation built to serve it.

The latest official SITUR-Q figures are difficult to dismiss. Average Tulum hotel occupancy fell from 73.8% in 2024 to 69.1% in 2025. During the first half of 2026, it dropped again to 66.18%, compared with 74.32% during the same period one year earlier.

That 8.13-point decline was unusually bad even within Quintana Roo. Statewide occupancy fell only 2.95 points over the same period.

Visitor numbers have also softened. Tourism Analytics, using Quintana Roo tourism data, recorded roughly 1.68 million Tulum visitors in 2025, down about 5.3% from 1.77 million in 2024.

At the same time, hotel capacity kept growing. Tulum ended 2025 with around 11,993 hotel rooms, approximately 5% more than one year earlier.

Tulum received fewer visitors while adding more places for them to sleep. Condo owners running short-term rentals then had to compete with that larger hotel base as well as other Airbnbs.

Tulum tourism is still large enough to support good properties. It currently looks too weak to support every property built around the tourism story.

Tulum tourism indicator	Earlier level	Latest comparable level	Change
Annual visitors	1.77M in 2024	1.68M in 2025	-5.3%
Full-year hotel occupancy	73.8% in 2024	69.1% in 2025	-4.7 pts
First-half hotel occupancy	74.32%	66.18%	-8.13 pts
Hotel rooms	About 11,400	11,993	About +5%
Quintana Roo first-half occupancy	75.82%	72.87%	-2.95 pts

Did Tulum Airport and the Maya Train actually help the property market?

Yes, Tulum Airport and the Maya Train have made Tulum much easier to reach, but the property boom expected a bigger demand boost than we have seen so far.

Tulum International Airport handled 1,244,661 passengers in 2025, according to Grupo Mundo Maya figures reported by El Economista. Passenger traffic grew only 0.9% from the previous year.

International traffic was healthier. The airport handled roughly 639,700 international passengers, and airlines currently connect Tulum directly with cities including Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Newark, New York, Toronto and Montreal.

The Maya Train adds another form of connectivity that Tulum simply did not have during most of its previous real-estate boom.

All of that improves the destination over the long run. Yet property sales still fell sharply and hotel occupancy weakened after these infrastructure projects opened.

Developers were directionally right that access would improve. They were far too optimistic about how quickly that access would translate into enough extra buyers, renters and tourists to absorb the enormous amount of property being built.

For today's buyer, the airport and train are genuine long-term positives. We just would not pay a premium based on the idea that either one is about to create another 2021-style boom.

Is Airbnb in Tulum still worth it now?

Yes for the right property, but Tulum Airbnb currently looks much harder than the old 10%-return sales pitches suggest.

AirDNA's latest Tulum market update tracks roughly 4,130 active short-term rentals. The average active property generated around $17,700 in trailing annual revenue, with 46% occupancy and an average daily rate of $125.

Some of the year-over-year numbers initially look fantastic. Average revenue per active listing increased 62% and occupancy rose 17%.

Then we get to the other half of the dataset. Active supply fell roughly 69%, the average daily rate dropped 23% and RevPAR fell almost 10%.

That combination strongly suggests a shakeout. Many weaker or less consistently active properties disappeared from the measured pool, leaving a smaller group of surviving listings with higher average occupancy and revenue. Meanwhile, operators are still charging less per booked night and generating less revenue for each available night.

We therefore would not read the 62% revenue increase as proof that the Tulum Airbnb market suddenly became great again.

A good unit can absolutely make money. Location, reviews, design, professional management and acquisition price matter enormously. The problem is buying an average condo and underwriting it as though average performance will automatically produce a great investment.

Tulum short-term rentals	Latest level	YoY change	What we see
Active listings	4,130	-69.4%	Big supply shakeout
Occupancy	46%	+17.4%	Remaining listings fill more nights
Average daily rate	$125	-23.0%	Pricing is weaker
RevPAR	$57	-9.7%	Available-night economics remain under pressure
Annual revenue per active listing	$17,700	+62.2%	Surviving listings look stronger

Would a long-term rental be safer than Airbnb in Tulum?

Yes, long-term renting is usually easier to manage in Tulum, but the returns can become mediocre very quickly if we pay too much for the condo.

A conventional lease avoids nightly guest turnover, constant cleaning, tourism seasonality and much of the competition for reviews. Revenue also becomes easier to predict.

The sacrifice is upside.

Recent market monitoring from TuLugar has put the median asking price of a two-bedroom Tulum apartment around $282,000 and median monthly rent near $1,058.

Using those two medians gives us annual rent of roughly $12,700 and a crude gross yield around 4.5%.

The rental and sales samples contain different properties, so this is not a precise apples-to-apples yield. It is still useful as an order-of-magnitude check.

A roughly 4.5% gross yield becomes considerably less attractive after HOA fees, maintenance, vacancy, property management and taxes.

So a buyer cannot rescue an expensive Tulum purchase simply by saying, “We can always rent it long term.” The purchase price still has to work.

Is it better to buy a Tulum resale than pre-construction now?

For most buyers today, yes. A completed Tulum resale makes more sense unless the pre-construction discount is large enough to justify the extra risk.

The market has changed the trade-off.

When finished inventory was scarce and prices were rising quickly, buying early in a project could capture substantial appreciation before delivery. Today we can often inspect a completed building, see the exact road leading to it, test the water pressure, examine the common areas and compare its rental performance with nearby competitors.

That information has real value.

Pre-construction still introduces delivery risk, permit risk and the possibility that the surrounding area develops much more slowly than advertised. Environmental enforcement is also a genuine issue around Tulum. Profepa has repeatedly intervened in developments and private construction affecting protected or environmentally sensitive areas around the municipality.

We would still consider presale property from a strong developer at a genuinely attractive price. But a token developer discount no longer compensates us for years of uncertainty when hundreds of completed alternatives are already available.

These days, the resale market should usually be the benchmark. A new project has to beat it convincingly.

Has the strong peso made Tulum property more expensive for Americans?

Yes. The stronger Mexican peso has wiped out a surprisingly large part of Tulum’s property correction for buyers bringing US dollars.

Banco de México data show just how large the currency move has been. The dollar was worth about MXN 20.79 at the end of 2024. It was around MXN 18 by the end of 2025 and has recently been close to MXN 17.

Take a property that costs MXN 5 million.

At MXN 20.79 per dollar, an American buyer needed roughly $240,500. At MXN 18, the same property cost about $277,800. At roughly MXN 17.03, it costs close to $293,600.

The peso price never moved in that example. The dollar buyer still ended up paying around $53,000 more.

This currency move deserves much more attention than it usually gets in Tulum real-estate marketing. A foreign buyer can correctly notice that sellers are more negotiable and still discover that the effective dollar entry price is worse than it was two years ago.

Property price	USD/MXN rate	Approx. dollar cost	Increase vs. 20.79
MXN 5,000,000	20.79	$240,500	—
MXN 5,000,000	18.00	$277,800	+15.5%
MXN 5,000,000	17.03	$293,600	+22.1%

Is financing a Tulum property still too expensive?

Yes. Financing remains expensive enough that highly leveraged buyers should be much more cautious than cash buyers.

Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal's latest national housing report puts Mexico's average mortgage rate at 11.42% in the second quarter of 2026.

At roughly that rate, financing MXN 3 million over 20 years gives us a monthly payment around MXN 30,000 before insurance and other costs, depending on the exact loan structure.

Now compare that with the rental economics available on many Tulum condos. A property generating a mid-single-digit gross long-term yield has very little chance of comfortably carrying debt costing around 11%.

Foreign buyers may also face less attractive lending options than Mexican residents with established domestic income and credit histories.

Cash therefore changes the timing question considerably.

A cash buyer can use today's slow sales environment to pressure a seller on price and close quickly. A heavily financed buyer may gain more from waiting for better borrowing conditions than from securing a small discount now.

Can foreigners safely buy property in Tulum?

Yes. Foreigners can securely buy residential property in Tulum through Mexico's established fideicomiso system, but we would take title and permit checks extremely seriously.

Tulum sits inside Mexico's restricted coastal zone. Foreign individuals therefore generally use a Mexican bank trust, known as a fideicomiso, rather than holding residential coastal land directly in their own name.

The foreign buyer becomes the beneficiary of the trust and keeps the practical economic rights associated with ownership, including the ability to use, rent, sell and transfer the property. These trusts can run for renewable periods of up to 50 years.

The fideicomiso itself is a standard legal structure. The bigger danger is buying the wrong property underneath it.

Tulum has land with complicated ownership histories, environmentally sensitive sites and developments whose paperwork deserves much more scrutiny than the sales office may suggest. Buyers should verify title history, liens, condominium registration, building permits, environmental approvals, utilities and any ejido history before funds change hands.

A large discount is attractive only after we understand why the property is cheap.

Are Tulum’s infrastructure problems still serious enough to affect a purchase?

Yes. Water, wastewater, roads and sargassum can still make two similarly priced Tulum properties very different investments.

The Mexican government's Proyectos México platform lists a new potable-water project for Tulum with estimated investment of roughly MXN 543 million. The planned system can add up to 576 liters per second of extraction capacity.

That is good news for the city, but the scale of the investment also tells us how quickly Tulum outgrew parts of its infrastructure.

Water is only one issue. Environmental organizations working in Quintana Roo have repeatedly raised concerns about groundwater contamination and insufficient wastewater collection around rapidly developed parts of Tulum.

Beach exposure brings another risk. The most recent sargassum season became serious enough for the federal government to announce roughly MXN 2 billion for a broader Quintana Roo response covering Tulum and other major destinations. The first stage is designed to increase daily collection capacity from around 1,227 tonnes to 1,870 tonnes, with a later goal of roughly 4,000 tonnes.

The response is getting much larger because the problem itself has become harder to ignore.

For buyers, we would bring infrastructure questions down to the building level. Where does the water come from? Does the building have cistern capacity? How often does power fail? Is the road paved? How is wastewater handled? Does rain make access difficult? Is the rental proposition heavily dependent on a beach that suffers badly during sargassum season?

Those details can affect the investment more than a rooftop pool ever will.

Can Tulum property prices start rising strongly again?

Yes, Tulum property prices can rise again, but another period where almost every condo gets pulled upward looks unlikely for now.

There is still a real long-term case for Tulum. The city now has its own international airport, Maya Train access, global name recognition and direct connections with major North American cities.

Mexico's national housing market also remains firm. Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal reported a 7.3% year-over-year increase in home values during the second quarter of 2026, while prices were up 7.9% over the first half.

Tulum's local problem is supply.

As seen above, development expanded massively before demand proved capable of absorbing it. That means the next appreciation cycle should discriminate much more aggressively between properties.

We would expect scarce characteristics to matter more: excellent access, larger layouts, genuinely good architecture, reliable infrastructure, low-density buildings, strong management, clear legal status and locations where another identical project cannot easily appear next door.

Generic studios in giant investor-focused projects face a much harder path. Even if Tulum grows, owners may spend years competing against nearly interchangeable units.

The city can recover without rescuing every condo.

What kind of Tulum deal is actually worth buying now?

A good Tulum deal today is a completed, legally clean property bought cheaply enough that the numbers still work under boring assumptions.

We would start with the resale price rather than a developer's claimed launch price. If a condo was supposedly worth $250,000 two years ago but comparable owners are now struggling to sell at $180,000, then $180,000 is the relevant market information.

Rental assumptions should be equally conservative. Current AirDNA data show only 46% average occupancy across active Tulum short-term rentals and falling average nightly rates. Building an investment case around 70% occupancy would require very strong evidence from that exact property or a genuinely comparable set of rentals.

Past booking statements are therefore much more useful than projected returns.

We would also prefer buildings where the expensive problems have already revealed themselves. After a few years of operation, buyers can see whether the HOA has enough money, whether the pool constantly needs repairs, whether guests complain about construction noise and whether the developer actually delivered what was promised.

The current market gives buyers enough choice to demand all of this. There is little reason to compromise for an average property.

Is it better to buy Tulum property now or wait?

For an average property, we would wait or negotiate much harder. For an unusually good resale at a real discount, buying now can make sense.

Nothing in the latest data suggests that buyers need to rush.

Tulum home sales have already fallen sharply, apartment inventory remains deep and tourism occupancy has weakened. Sellers do not currently have the kind of market power that usually punishes buyers for waiting a few months.

On the other hand, waiting blindly for a dramatic crash could also fail. Broad asking prices have proven much stickier than transaction volumes, construction costs rose quickly during the boom, and Mexico's broader housing market is still appreciating.

Currency adds another complication for foreign buyers. Even lower peso property prices would not necessarily produce a cheaper dollar purchase if the peso strengthens again.

That leaves us with a much more practical approach. We would keep looking now, make aggressive offers and buy when an individual property reaches a price that already compensates us for Tulum's current risks.

There is no reason to predict the exact bottom if the deal itself is already good enough.

So, is it a good time to buy property in Tulum now?

Yes, but only selectively. Tulum currently offers some of the best buyer leverage we have seen in years, while the average property still carries too much supply and rental risk to call the whole market cheap.

The opportunity comes from the gap between sellers who still remember boom-era valuations and the much weaker market they now have to sell into.

Transactions fell roughly 51% between 2023 and 2025. Huge amounts of condo inventory remain available. Buyers can compare completed properties instead of gambling on renderings. Some owners eventually have to negotiate.

Tourism gives us less reason to rush. Hotel occupancy has fallen substantially, visitor growth has weakened and accommodation capacity expanded faster than demand. Airbnb economics are also much less forgiving once we look past headline revenue growth among the smaller pool of surviving active listings.

Financing remains expensive, and the strong peso has made entry surprisingly costly for Americans paying in dollars.

So we would buy Tulum property today when four things line up: a strong micro-location, a completed and legally clean building, conservative rental economics and a price clearly below realistic competing resales.

We would walk away from generic pre-construction inventory, inflated Airbnb projections and sellers asking yesterday's prices.

Tulum has become interesting again precisely because buyers can be picky. That is the opportunity right now.

Who is the author of this content?

THE LATINVESTOR

A team specialized in real estate investing in LATAM countries

We are a team of financial experts, legal professionals, developers, and local real estate specialists dedicated to helping people like you avoid mistakes when investing in real estate in a foreign place, particularly in Tulum. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can check our presentation page.