Buying land in Belize

Land on this MLS runs from a 50-by-75-foot lot to a farm parcel measured in acres. The photo will not tell you which one you are buying. The survey, the access, and the document at the Lands Department will.

Ask which land it is

Most private sales are freehold: you are buying the seller’s titled interest. National land held on a government lease is different. The state is the landlord, the lease has a term and a rent, and a transfer can need consent. A foreign buyer should not assume that lease is available to them. Ask the person on the listing which one is for sale, then have your attorney confirm it.

A “50 x 75 lot” is not five acres. A “river acreage” may not include a surveyed boundary you can walk. If there is no recent survey, ask for one before you close. Cadastral maps matter more on land than they do on a condo in town.

Access is part of the price

A pin on a map is not a road. Ask how you reach the parcel in the dry season and in the wet season, and whether that road is public. On the cayes, ask whether the lot is on a named street or behind someone else’s path. In Cayo, Orange Walk, and Toledo, ask about water and whether the sale includes equipment or only the dirt.

Farms and large parcels are collected under farms and acreage. Lots of every size are under land.

The money is the same problem as a house

Stamp duty is charged on the higher of the price and the assessed value. The brackets are in what it costs to buy property in Belize. Earnest money belongs in your attorney’s trust account. The checks before a wire are in questions to ask before you wire a deposit.

Search land on the map, then call the person named on the listing.