Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit, Sept. 9, 2026 – Nayarit’s notary association is warning that irregular land subdivisions and missing municipal services pose legal and financial risks for buyers in the coastal municipality.
Rafael Pérez Cárdenas, president of the Nayarit College of Notaries, raised the concern after a two-day meeting of notaries from across Mexico.
“Bahía de Banderas stands out in Nayarit and nationally as one of those with the most deficiencies and problems,” Pérez Cárdenas said in a statement translated from Spanish.
Our review of federal law, municipal regulations and recent government records found documented land-regularization problems across the municipality. Those records also show that ownership, subdivision approval and access to services require separate verification.
Pérez Cárdenas did not identify individual developments or parcels in his comments published Wednesday. His warning should not be read as applying to every property in Bahía de Banderas.
Buyers face two separate property checks
Prospective buyers must establish whether a seller can legally transfer the exact parcel being offered. They must also confirm that municipal authorities approved the subdivision and its urbanization.
Those are separate issues.
Mexico’s Agrarian Law limits how rights to ejidal parcels may be transferred. Article 80 generally restricts those transactions to ejidatarios or recognized residents of the same agrarian community.
The transaction requires written consent, two witnesses, and ratification before a notary. The seller must also notify family members who hold a right of first refusal and inform the ejidal commissioner. The transfer must then be registered with the National Agrarian Registry, or RAN.
A parcel follows a different process before it becomes private property that can be sold outside the ejidal system.
The ejidal assembly must first authorize participating parcel holders to adopt full private title. The owner then asks RAN to remove the parcel from the agrarian registry and issue a property title.
That title must be registered with the state’s Public Registry of Property. Only after the RAN registration is canceled does the parcel leave the ejidal system, according to Article 82.
The first sale after conversion also carries notification requirements. Failure to honor the statutory right of first refusal can expose the sale to annulment under Article 84.
A deed does not confirm municipal compliance
A valid ownership document does not, by itself, establish that a larger parcel was legally divided into residential lots.
Bahía de Banderas’ urban development and construction regulations require municipal land-use compatibility and a land-use license.
The regulations direct the municipality to identify, stop, and sanction irregular settlements. They also require regularization projects to consider infrastructure, public facilities, and services.
The municipality’s current urban development procedures include separate applications for subdivision approval, urbanization licenses, and final subdivision resolutions.
A buyer should therefore request the municipal authorization for the development, not only a deed for the individual lot. Water and sewer feasibility documents from OROMAPAS should also be reviewed when those services are promised.
Pérez Cárdenas said notaries discussed parcels being divided near growing towns and tourism areas without meeting legal requirements. He said some subdivisions also lacked the municipal services expected in an authorized development.
Municipal records show a wider regularization problem
In March, Bahía de Banderas Urban Development Director Julio Santoyo estimated that the municipality had about 80 irregular subdivisions.
Santoyo said the greatest concentration was in the municipality’s most populated central areas. He attributed the problem to neighborhoods created through irregular parcel divisions.
Municipal records show that regularization work extends across several communities.
In May, the Bahía de Banderas government reported delivering more than 45 case files to the National Institute of Sustainable Land, or INSUS. The files involved colonies in Lo de Marcos, San Pancho, Bucerías, Sayulita, San José del Valle, San Vicente, El Porvenir, San Juan, and Mezcales.
The government did not describe those 45 cases as new real estate developments. They show, however, that legal title remains unresolved for properties across several established communities.
In 2023, INSUS delivered 150 deeds to families in Bahía de Banderas. The federal agency said regularization also addressed years of service, accessibility, and mobility deficits affecting residents.
More than 280 families in Villas Miramar received deeds in another municipal regularization action announced in May 2026. The municipality said those residents had waited years for legal certainty.
Bahía de Banderas is also updating its municipal land-use program with federal officials. The municipality has identified settlement regularization, legal certainty, and infrastructure as priorities in that process.
Records buyers can request
The Nayarit Public Registry of Property issues several records that can help establish a property’s legal status.
Available documents include certificates covering liens, ownership restrictions, registration status, and property history. The registry says applicants need the property’s real folio number or prior registration information.
Before paying a deposit, buyers can ask the seller and notary to identify:
- The deed or RAN-issued private property title.
- The property’s Public Registry folio.
- Any liens, ownership restrictions, or preventive notices.
- The cadastral identification and surveyed boundaries.
- The municipal subdivision authorization.
- The urbanization license and final subdivision resolution.
- Land-use compatibility for the property.
- Water and sewer feasibility documents from OROMAPAS.
- Building permits for any existing structures.
A cadastral account, property tax receipt, or private purchase agreement should not be treated as a substitute for the applicable agrarian, registry, and municipal records.
Foreign buyers have an additional requirement
Foreign buyers face another legal step because Bahía de Banderas lies within Mexico’s restricted coastal zone.
The Foreign Relations Secretariat says foreigners cannot hold direct title to residential land within 50 kilometers of the coast. Residential property is generally held through a bank trust authorized by the federal government.
The authorization can cover a maximum term of 50 years, and the trust agreement must appear in a public deed.
That trust process is separate from verifying whether the land left the ejidal system lawfully. It also does not replace municipal subdivision, land-use, or service approvals.
