patrick.net

New investors are transforming tattered properties into boutique hotels before an American tourist surge hits.

Significant restrictions remain. Cubans are limited to one property in the city and one vacation home. Titleholders must be Cuban citizens or permanent residents, not foreigners. The deals are almost always done in cash, and the transactions must pass through Cuban banks, though buyers and sellers often agree to exchange additional sums outside the country to minimize tax payments.

Communist authorities are in the game, too, building high-end condominiums for sale to non-Cuban buyers, with plans to erect more alongside golf courses and yacht marinas in partnership with Chinese investors.

As usual, Cubans have found ways to skirt their government’s attempts to control the market, as have Cuban Americans (and U.S. residents) blocked by the U.S. trade embargo. Some buyers acquire additional properties in the names of their children, while foreigners find Cubans to put on the deed, despite the risk that they would have no legal claim to the property.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/75000-will-get-you-a-lot-of-house-in-havana--if-youre-cuban/2015/05/25/bbed3d78-fd8f-11e4-8c77-bf274685e1df_story.html?hpid=z4

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