• For foreign buyers in Tulum
  • Built with local realtors
  • Updated this quarter

Here's 99% of what you need to know before buying in Tulum.

The 12 documents we wish we had before buying in Tulum. What each zone costs, what it really earns once the low season is counted, how fast it sells again. Plus the things nobody writes down: which land has a clean title, which fees to refuse, and what a brochure is not telling you.

Get the full pack → $49 See the 12 documents

The 12 documents to make a good real estate investment in Tulum in 2026

More has been built here in five years than the rental market has absorbed, and the returns being quoted are not the returns being earned. Most of these documents exist to close that gap. They are put together with realtors, notaría staff and owners we work with in Tulum.

Questions

Do you list your sources?
Yes, on every table. Each one says where the figures came from and the month they were collected: the public property registry, published notaría fee schedules, listing and nightly rate histories we track ourselves, condo accounts shared with us by owners, and what the agents we work with in each zone are seeing week to week. Anything that is an estimate rather than a recorded number is labelled as one.
Can a foreigner actually own property here?
Yes, but not the way you would at home. Tulum sits inside the coastal strip where foreigners hold property through a bank trust rather than in their own name. That part is routine. The part to watch is the land underneath: a lot of it began as ejido, and documents 03 and 06 cover how to tell a clean title from a tidy story.
Are you going to talk me out of buying in Tulum?
No, but we are not going to repeat the ten percent returns either. A great deal has been built here in a short time, and what a unit earns depends far more on the zone, the month and whether the title exists than on anything a brochure says. The numbers are in there, and you can decide.
How long are the documents?
One to four pages each. They are tables and checklists rather than reports, so any one of them takes about ten minutes to read.
Which areas do you cover?
Fourteen zones and regions: Aldea Zamá, La Veleta, Región 15, Región 8, Holistika, Villas Tulum, the hotel strip along the beach road, Tulum Centro, plus Akumal, Soliman Bay and Tankah up the coast. If you need somewhere or a specific development that is not in there, write to us and we will put it together for you at no extra cost.
I have a question about my own situation.
Ask us. If the answer is in the research we already have, we will send it. If it needs a call to someone in that zone or a look at a specific building, we will do that too and come back to you, at no extra cost.
Is $49 a lot for a set of documents?
You are about to spend a few hundred thousand dollars on a property, in a country whose paperwork you did not grow up with. Land that was never clean, a developer who never delivers, a return that was never real: there are plenty of ways this gets expensive. We have done the homework so that you do not have to.
What format are they in?
PDF, so you can read them on your phone, tablet or computer.
When do I get them?
Straight after payment. The download link appears on screen and a copy arrives by email.
How often are they updated?
Every quarter. Our contacts in Tulum re-check the numbers before each release, so the version you download today is the one updated this quarter.
I have another question.
Ask us on the contact page and we will get back to you.

Three packs

The first pack has 4 documents, the second has 6, and the third has all 12 of our Tulum research.

All the data and information in these documents was checked this year with agents, notaría staff and owners working in Tulum.