Property
Registered title over an unresolved confiscation legacy
Title is registered in the Registro Público de la Propiedad Inmueble. Two overlapping problems dominate: unresolved claims from the 1980s reform-era confiscations, and post-2018 seizures of property belonging to closed NGOs, universities and exiled critics.
Key rules
- Transfer requires an escritura pública and registration to affect third parties.
- Reform-era titles issued under Laws 85, 86 and 88 may coexist with earlier private titles, requiring a full chain review.
- Autonomous Caribbean regions hold communal indigenous title under Ley 445, which is inalienable.
- Foreigners may own property, subject to restrictions in border and coastal security zones.
- Adverse possession runs ten years with good faith and title, thirty years otherwise.
Governing law
- Ley 445 de Régimen de Propiedad ComunalIndigenous and Afro-descendant communal title.
- Código CivilOwnership, possession and prescription.
- Ley 278 sobre Propiedad Reformada Urbana y AgrariaReform-era title resolution.
In practice
Commission a full historical chain search rather than a current-folio certificate. Property connected to confiscated entities carries a title defect that no amount of registry formality cures, and international claims remain open.