The listing photos look the same either way. Underneath, they aren’t.
If you hold a home in Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta, Bucerías, Punta de Mita or Sayulita through a bank trust, the sale has a step that a seller in Guadalajara never deals with: the trust itself has to be resolved. And how it gets resolved depends almost entirely on one fact — whether your buyer is foreign or Mexican.
Two routes. Two timelines. Two cost structures. Worth knowing before you accept an offer, not after.
FIRST, WHAT YOU ACTUALLY HOLD
Under Article 27 of the Constitution, direct dominion over land within 50 kilometers of any coastline is reserved to Mexicans. That strip — the restricted zone — covers the entire Bahía de Banderas coast on both the Jalisco and Nayarit sides. A foreign buyer can hold residential property there through a bank trust, the fideicomiso, which has been the standard instrument since 1973. Not a workaround. The standard.
In that structure the bank is the trustee (fiduciario) and holds title. You are the beneficiary (fideicomisario), and you keep the rights that matter: use, rent, mortgage, sell, and pass it on. The trust runs 50 years and is renewable for equal periods; renewal is administrative and the bank cannot refuse it.
So the right to sell is yours. But the bank is a party to the instrument, which means the bank’s paperwork and the bank’s internal process sit on your closing calendar. That is the part sellers underestimate.
ROUTE 1 — YOUR BUYER IS ALSO FOREIGN
A foreign buyer will also need to hold through a trust. Practically, that happens one of two ways: the buyer steps into the existing trust as the new beneficiary, or the existing trust is wound down and a new one is set up in the buyer’s name.
Which of the two is available is not automatic. It depends on what your trust deed allows, on the trustee bank, and on the documentation behind the trust. Ask these questions early, in writing:
— How many years remain on the 50-year term, and if the buyer takes over the existing trust, does the buyer continue that remaining term or start a new one?
— What does the trustee bank require to process a change of beneficiary, and how long does it take?
— If a new trust is constituted instead, note that a permit from the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores is required. That is a federal filing, and it has its own clock.
The difference between the two paths is not cosmetic. One is largely a bank-and-notary process. The other adds a federal permit and the full setup of a new trust. Assume they don’t cost the same and don’t take the same time, and get both numbers before you commit to a closing date in the contract.
ROUTE 2 — YOUR BUYER IS MEXICAN
A Mexican buyer doesn’t need a trust to hold coastal residential property. Direct dominion in the restricted zone is reserved to Mexicans — that’s the point of Article 27.
So the trust doesn’t continue. It has to be closed out with the trustee bank, and title is conveyed directly to the buyer by public deed before a notary, then recorded in the Registro Público de la Propiedad.
That removes the cost of setting up a new trust and the SRE permit from the buyer’s side. It adds the process of unwinding yours. Again: the bank’s timeline is the variable you don’t control, and it’s the one most likely to move your closing.
THE NOTARY IS NOT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE
Worth repeating for anyone comparing this to a U.S. closing. A notario público in Mexico is a lawyer holding a patente from the state governor — not an administrative witness. The notary verifies title, reviews liens, calculates and withholds taxes, issues the public deed and records it.
And the notary is neutral. The notary represents the legality of the act, not the seller and not the buyer. That neutrality is exactly why each side needs its own counsel reading the same documents with its own interests in mind.
THE TAX LINE THAT SURPRISES PEOPLE ON THIS COAST
This one isn’t about your route — it’s about which side of the bay the property sits on, and it shapes what your buyer is willing to pay.
Jalisco charges ISAI on acquisition: 2% on the cadastral value.
Nayarit charges ISABI: 2% on the highest value, which is normally the consideration actually paid.
Same rate. Different base. Because cadastral value usually sits below market, the acquisition tax on a Nayarit property tends to come out higher than on a Jalisco property at the same price. A buyer weighing a condo in Bucerías against one in Marina Vallarta is not looking at the same closing number, and a well-advised buyer knows it.
Overall closing costs on a purchase normally run 3% to 5% of the property value, varying with the size of the transaction.
One caution: don’t assume the two routes above carry identical tax treatment across the board. That’s a question to put to the notary and to your own counsel, in writing, before you sign anything — not a detail to discover at the signing table.
WHO CANCELS WHAT
The phrase sellers use is “cancel the trust,” as if it were a subscription. Nothing cancels itself, and nothing about it is a single step.
There is a seller side — closing out your relationship with the trustee bank — and a buyer side — opening theirs, or not. Most sale contracts say “closing costs to buyer” and stop there. On a trust property, that sentence leaves too much unassigned.
Put it in the contract, by name:
— Who requests the letters and statements from the trustee bank, and by when.
— Who bears the cost on the seller’s side of the trust, and who bears the cost of the buyer’s structure.
— Who files with the SRE, if a filing is needed at all.
— Who delivers which documents to the notary, and the deadline for each.
— What happens to the closing date if the bank takes longer than expected.
That last one prevents more arguments than any other clause on the list.
BEFORE YOU LIST — A SHORT FILE REVIEW
Pull these together now, not when an offer arrives:
— The trust deed itself, and the SRE permit that goes with it.
— The identity of the current trustee bank. Trusts have moved between institutions over the years; the bank on your original document may not be the one you deal with today.
— Whether anything is outstanding on the trust. Ask the bank directly.
— Which substitute beneficiaries are named. Naming them is one of the real advantages of the structure: property passes to heirs without a succession proceeding in Mexico. If the naming is out of date, this is the moment to look at it.
— Liens and encumbrances of record, and the status of predial.
— If the unit is in a condominium, the condominium regime documentation.
— And the origin of the chain of title. If ejido land appears anywhere in it, that’s a separate and serious review. Ejido land is social property and cannot be sold to a private party until it is converted to dominio pleno through the corresponding agrarian procedure. A “cesión de derechos” over ejido land does not transfer ownership — no matter what it looks like on paper.
THE SHORT VERSION
Ask who your buyer is before you agree to a closing date. That single answer sets the route, the paperwork, the calendar and the numbers. Everything else follows from it.
This is general information about how these transactions are structured on this coast, not advice on your particular sale. Your trust deed, your bank and your buyer will each change the answer.