Quintana Roo Closes 123 Real Estate Developments Over Missing Permits

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — The state agency that oversees urban development has closed and publicly flagged 123 real estate developments across Quintana Roo for selling homes and lots without the required licenses and permits.

Most of the irregular projects are concentrated in Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Benito Juárez, the municipality that includes Cancún, according to the Secretariat for Sustainable Territorial and Urban Development, known as Sedetus.

Gabriela Peña, Sedetus’s director of real estate affairs, said the agency maintains a public registry that buyers and investors can consult before making a down payment or signing a contract.

“Right now we have 123 developments in our registry that have been inspected and where the institutions have confirmed that the corresponding paperwork does not exist,” Peña said. “They can be taken off the list once they regularize and meet the requirements, but in the meantime they remain there so people can check before buying.”

Sedetus urged prospective buyers to consult the registry before closing any real estate transaction and to work only with licensed, state-accredited real estate agents.

Peña said the economic growth of the Riviera Maya has made Playa del Carmen and Tulum the leading municipalities for unregistered developments, followed closely by the urban and peri-urban areas of Benito Juárez.

Sedetus director José Alberto Alonso Ovando said the agency has received three complaints from foreign buyers: two involving properties in Tulum and one in Playa del Carmen.

He said most complaints concern missed delivery deadlines rather than completed fraud, and such cases are usually handled through commercial or administrative channels.

“Often these are not fraud cases, they are contract breaches,” Alonso Ovando said. “When a development fails to deliver on time, the matter normally goes through commercial proceedings. I can’t say whether it is fraud because that depends on a judicial investigation.”

He declined to name the projects involved, citing due process. The agency also encouraged affected buyers to file formal complaints at its customer service center.