Playa del Carmen Resolves Cadastral Update Misinformation

Playa del Carmen, Mexico — Municipal Treasurer Javier Regalado Hendricks announced that after weeks of dialogue with business chambers and private sector organizations, the misinformation that initially generated discontent over the update of cadastral value tables has been dispelled.

“We are doing well; we had a working meeting with all the chambers. There was a lot of misinformation, but we are now on better terms. All pending meetings have now been addressed,” the official stated in an interview.

Regalado Hendricks specified that the process is on schedule and proceeding as planned for the update to be applied according to the established timeline. “We are indeed on schedule,” he assured, though he acknowledged that “nobody wants to pay more.”

The announcement of the update was made on July 31 by Municipal President Estefanía Mercado Asencio, who highlighted the disparity in cadastral payments. At the time, the mayor provided an example of a luxury hotel that, for 12 years, has paid only 50 pesos per square meter, while in subdivisions like Villas del Sol, entire families pay up to 1,200 pesos for the same concept.

“Working families cannot continue to bear a greater fiscal burden than that of large hotel developers with beachfront properties,” she stated at the time.

The business sector expressed its rejection of the measure, warning that it could lead to increases of up to 900 percent in property tax payments. The Riviera Maya Hotel Association sent official letters to the City Council requesting a reconsideration of the proposal.

However, the initiative received the backing of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who during a morning press conference in Mexico City emphasized that the decision corresponds to municipal governments but qualified the proposal as a step toward tax equity.

“Those who have more should pay more, and those who have less should pay less, because otherwise, you deepen inequalities and poverty,” the president declared.

In a separate matter, the Playa del Carmen City Council approved modifications to the rate of the Environmental Sanitation Right fee on the same day. This change was made at the request of the Hotel Association, which argued for lower tourist numbers during the first half of the year.

“The Hotel Association sent us an official letter; they submitted a request in which they asked, due to the low expectations they had this year regarding visitors, that we modify the Environmental Sanitation Right topic that we approved in the Finance Law last year. So, what we just approved is simply to maintain consistency with the things that are happening, the economic activity that sustains us here, the sargassum issue, everything that is happening internationally,” the treasurer said.

The municipal treasurer reported that the initial projection was to collect 560 million pesos in 2024; however, revenues fell, and the year is now estimated to close with only between 380 and 400 million pesos.

He added that with the newly authorized figures, the first person will be charged 30% of the UMA (Unit of Measurement and Update), and a second person will pay 15 percent for the right starting this second semester.