A Cuban property sale closes in one sitting at a state notary’s office in the municipality where the house stands, with the whole price paid there by bank cheque. Since 7 January 2026 that sitting runs under a new law, Ley 175 “Del Notariado”, which gives the notary seven working days to authorise the deed.
Two eras meet at that desk. The housing side of the transaction still runs on a law from 1988 and a decree-law from 2011. The notarial side was replaced this January, after forty-one years. Hardly anyone selling from abroad has noticed what the new one lets them do.
What has to be in place before a Cuban property sale can be signed?
Three things, in this order. The property has to be inscribed in the Registro de la Propiedad, with the Certificación issued. The seller has to have settled any outstanding debt on the transfer of ownership, evidenced by a bank document. And the buyer has to have the full price sitting in a Cuban bank as a cheque de gerencia.
Article 70.4 of Ley 65, as amended by Decreto-Ley 288 of 28 October 2011, sets those out. The decree-law was published in Gaceta Oficial Extraordinaria No. 35 of 2 November 2011 and the Gaceta’s own record still showed it in force when we checked on 24 August 2026. At the signing the buyer declares under oath that he owns no other home of permanent residence, and proves with a bank document that the money exists. None of this is optional, and none of it can be done on the day.
One thing to get out of the way: the new housing law approved on 30 July 2026, Ley 187 “De la Vivienda”, is not yet published in the Gaceta with its articles, so it changes nothing below. Everything here is the law as it stands this morning.
Which law governs the Cuban notary now, and what changed in January 2026?
Ley 175 “Del Notariado”, approved by the National Assembly on 19 December 2024, published in Gaceta Ordinaria No. 62 on 7 July 2025 and in force from 7 January 2026 according to Cuba’s Ministry of Justice. Its Disposición Final Tercera repeals Ley 50 “De las Notarías Estatales” of 28 December 1984, which had governed every Cuban signing for forty-one years.
Three ministerial resolutions arrived in the same Gaceta edition: Resolución 331/2025, the regulation; Resolución 332/2025, the service deadlines; Resolución 333/2025, the fees. The changes a property owner will feel are in the detail. Article 96 gives documents authorised in electronic form the same public faith as paper ones, which the law calls the principio de equivalencia funcional. Notaries now hold certified electronic signatures. And a party can attend the signing by videoconference, which gets its own section below because it is the biggest practical change in years.
How long does each step of a Cuban property sale legally take?
Seven working days for the purchase deed. That number is in Anexo I of Resolución 332/2025 of the Ministry of Justice, counted in working days from the moment the matter is entered in the Libro Único de Control de Asuntos. Registry inscription is a separate fifteen working days, under Resolución 270/2011.
Statutory deadlines on a Cuban house sale, as at August 2026
| Step | Legal deadline | Norm |
| Inscription in the Registro de la Propiedad | 15 working days from filing, plus up to 30 more working days if the Registrar has to verify the title | Res. 270/2011 MinJus, Third |
| Escritura de compraventa de bienes inmuebles | 7 working days | Res. 332/2025 MinJus, Anexo I.1 |
| Escritura de donación de bienes inmuebles | 6 working days | Res. 332/2025, Anexo I.2 |
| Escritura de aceptación de herencia y adjudicación de bienes | 7 working days; 10 if combined with other acts | Res. 332/2025, Anexo I.13-14 |
| Escritura de contrato de permuta | 7 working days | Res. 332/2025, Anexo I.17 |
| Escritura de apoderamiento (power of attorney) | immediately, or up to 5 working days by complexity | Res. 332/2025, Anexo I.21 |
| Validity of the cheque de gerencia | 60 calendar days from issue | Res. 85/2011 BCC, Fifth |
| Transfer tax and seller’s income tax | 30 calendar days from the escritura | Res. 351/2011 MFP, Seventh and Eighth |
Sources: Gaceta Oficial Ordinaria No. 62 of 7 July 2025 and Extraordinaria No. 35 of 2 November 2011, both read in full on 24 August 2026.
Add up the clean case and it fits: fifteen working days at the Registro, seven at the notary, thirty calendar days to pay the taxes, all inside the sixty days the cheque stays alive. That is the design. Reality diverges, and the reason is in the next two sections.
Those deadlines are obligations, not aspirations. Resolución 332/2025 makes it a grave fault to accept a matter and leave it out of the book until the day it’s authorised, and it requires the cause of any missed deadline to be written into the book. Whether that gets enforced in a given municipality is a separate question. You now have something to point at.
Why must a Cuban house be registered before it can be sold?
Because Decreto-Ley 288 made inscription a precondition of the sale rather than a consequence of it. Article 70.3 formalises the purchase before a notary “con sede en el lugar donde se encuentre enclavado el inmueble”, and Article 70.4 requires the seller to prove the property is inscribed. Without the Registro’s Certificación there is no signing.
Resolución 270/2011 of the Ministry of Justice sets what the Registrar asks for: the título de propiedad, the identity document of whoever applies or proof of their authority to act, and proof of payment of the Impuesto sobre Transmisión de Bienes y Herencias where it applies. Then comes the sentence that decides most Cuban transactions. The Registrar “se abstiene de radicar la solicitud” when he sees errors or omissions in the documents. He advises how to fix them, but he does not file. So a defective file is not rejected in fifteen days. It never starts the fifteen days.
Cuba Luxury Rent has worked out of Havana since 2000, and this is where sales die. Not at the notary. At the counter before it.
How is the money paid in a Cuban property sale?
Not in cash. The buyer provides the funds at a branch of Banco Metropolitano, Banco Popular de Ahorro or Banco de Crédito y Comercio and asks for a cheque de gerencia made out to the seller. The bank hands it to the seller at the moment of the notarial signing. It cannot be transferred or assigned to anyone else.
Resolución 85/2011 of the Banco Central de Cuba, published alongside Decreto-Ley 288, spells it out. On the application the buyer declares the parties, the amount in Cuban pesos, and “la licitud de los fondos, con independencia del importe” – a declaration on the lawfulness of the funds whatever the sum, with the bank expressly relieved of responsibility. The cheque expires sixty calendar days from issue. When it is cashed the seller can take the money in cash or move it to an account, and the banks charge fixed commissions for the service.
Treat those sixty days as the project deadline. Everything else has to be finished before the cheque is cut, not after.
What taxes are paid when a house is sold in Cuba?
Two, both at four per cent. The buyer self-assesses the Impuesto sobre Transmisión de Bienes y Herencias. The seller pays the Impuesto sobre los Ingresos Personales on the proceeds recorded in the deed. Resolución 351/2011 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices puts both payments at a bank branch within thirty calendar days of the escritura.
What has changed since 2011 is the base they are calculated on. Resolución 313/2024 of the same ministry, published in Gaceta Ordinaria No. 102 of 2024 under identifier GOC-2024-589-O102 with a corrected copy in Edición Especial No. 5 of 19 March 2025, sets minimum reference values – the valor referencial – for exactly these two taxes on sales and donations between private individuals. It repealed Resolución 112/2017, and the Gaceta’s record showed no norm repealing it when we checked on 24 August 2026. Declaring a low price does not produce a low tax. We took the valuation system apart in a separate piece on how Cuba values a home.
Rates and payment terms move. Confirm yours with the notary and with ONAT before you plan around them, and take the tax position itself to a Cuban lawyer.
Can a Cuban living abroad sell a Havana house without flying in?
Since January 2026 there is a route that did not exist before. Article 97.1 of Ley 175 allows a notarial public document to be granted and authorised through videoconference systems or another secure institutional digital channel, “siempre que sea posible la presencia física de al menos, uno de los comparecientes” – provided at least one of the appearing parties can be there in person.
Article 181 names it for the case that matters here: acts of assent or consent to dispose of immovable property, with one party appearing virtually, where there is no conflict of interests. The mechanics are written into the article. The notary records the virtual attendance, the technology used and the time. After the deed is read aloud and heard by everyone, the parties physically present sign, and the autograph signature of the virtual party is dispensed with under notarial faith. Article 181.5 requires the Cuban consular official in that country, or a notary based there, to be present alongside the virtual party, and says so must be recorded in the escritura. Where Cuba has no consular representation in the country, the recording of the videoconference session can prove that party’s consent.
The limits are in the same text. The notary may demand a digital copy of a deed of ratification. He must refuse the whole thing if he cannot identify the person appearing virtually or cannot verify their will, and Article 97.2 obliges him to decline, with reasons, where the conditions for a virtual signing don’t exist. Whether your particular sale qualifies is his call, and it is worth a Cuban lawyer’s opinion before anyone books a slot. What’s changed is that the answer is no longer automatically no.
What actually kills a Cuban property deal?
The people living in the house, and the paperwork behind them. Article 70.5, as amended by Decreto-Ley 288, makes it a ground of nullity – on top of the grounds in the Civil Code – to leave any of the convivientes referred to in Article 65 of Ley 65 without protection. A signed, paid and registered sale can be undone on that.
It is not only spouses and children. Under Article 77.4 of the same law, occupants who are not heirs but lived in the home for at least five years with the consent of the owner before their death keep the right to stay. An inheritance nobody ever adjudicated carries those people with it, invisibly, until a notary asks.
Then there is the file itself: an extension built without a licence that never reached the title, an heir abroad who never renounced, a deed in the name of someone who left in 1994. Notaries are fast when the file is clean. Seven working days fast, now that it’s written down. The file is rarely clean.
What does a Cuban notary charge for a purchase deed?
A published scale, not a negotiation. Item 41 of Resolución 333/2025 of the Ministry of Justice charges contracts with a price on bands: 320 Cuban pesos up to 10,000, 1,250 from 150,001 to 300,000, 4,000 from one to two million, and above three million, 180 pesos for every additional 100,000 or part of it.
Legitimising a signature is 50 pesos under item 72. These are statutory tariffs published in the Gaceta, and the resolution says plainly that they cover the notarial service only – taxes and document duties are separate. Set against two taxes of four per cent each, the notary is the cheapest part of a Cuban closing by a wide margin. Time is the expensive part.
What should you have ready before walking into a Cuban notary’s office?
Six things. Bring them together and the seven-day clock is a real seven days; bring five of the six and you have not started.
- The título de propiedad, and the Registro’s Certificación proving the property is inscribed.
- Identity documents for everyone signing, plus proof of authority for anyone signing on behalf of another.
- The bank document showing the seller’s transfer-of-ownership debts are settled.
- The buyer’s bank evidence of the funds, and the cheque de gerencia made out to the seller.
- A written answer on who lives in the house and what happens to them after the sale.
- If anyone is signing from abroad, the notary’s confirmation in advance that he will take a virtual appearance, and which consulate is involved.
Where Cuba Luxury Rent fits
Cuba Luxury Rent has had a presence in Cuba since 2000 and an office in Havana. The useful thing we can tell you is not what the law says, because you have just read that. It is where a specific file stands: whether the title is inscribed, what the Certificación actually says, which of the people in the house have a claim, and what a notary in that municipality will ask for. This piece was written on 24 August 2026 from the Gaceta Oficial’s own editions, read directly rather than through a summary. If a property matters to you, our contact page or the concierge desk is where to start. Your own Cuban lawyer is where to finish.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a property sale take in Cuba?
On the legal deadlines, about five weeks in a clean case: fifteen working days to inscribe the property in the Registro de la Propiedad, then seven working days for the notary to authorise the purchase deed, with thirty calendar days after that to pay the taxes. Defective paperwork adds months, because the Registrar does not file an incomplete application at all.
Do you have to pay for a Cuban house in cash?
No, and cash is not allowed. Under Resolución 85/2011 of the Banco Central de Cuba the buyer funds a cheque de gerencia at a Cuban bank, made out to the seller and handed over at the notarial signing. The cheque cannot be passed to a third party and expires sixty calendar days after it is issued.
Can a Cuban living abroad sell their Havana house without travelling?
Ley 175 “Del Notariado”, in force since 7 January 2026, allows a party to appear by videoconference provided at least one appearing party is physically present, with a Cuban consular official or a local notary alongside the virtual party. The authorising notary decides case by case and must refuse if identity or consent cannot be verified.
What taxes are paid when a house is sold in Cuba?
Four per cent transfer tax, self-assessed by the buyer, and four per cent personal income tax on the seller’s proceeds, both payable at a bank branch within thirty calendar days of the deed under Resolución 351/2011. Since Resolución 313/2024 both are calculated against minimum reference values, so declaring a low price does not reduce the tax.
Why does a Cuban property have to be registered before it can be sold?
Decreto-Ley 288 of 2011 made inscription in the Registro de la Propiedad a precondition of sale, donation and exchange. Article 70.4 requires the seller to prove the property is inscribed, and the Registrar issues the Certificación that the notary needs. No inscription means no Certificación, and no signing.
SOURCES
Primary – Gaceta Oficial de la Republica de Cuba
- Gaceta Oficial Ordinaria No. 62, 7 July 2025
- Gaceta Oficial Extraordinaria No. 35, 2 November 2011
- Gaceta Oficial norm record for Decreto-Ley 288 de 2011
- Gaceta Oficial norm record for Resolucion 313 de 2024 MFP (GOC-2024-589-O102, Gaceta Ordinaria No. 102 de 2024)
Cuban official media
- Ministerio de Justicia de la Republica de Cuba, 7 January 2026 – statement that Ley 175 “Del Notariado” entered into force that day.
- Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN), 17 November 2025 – “Exponen Ley 175 del Notariado en Cuba”: entry into force 7 January 2026
- Cubadebate, 8 January 2026 – report on entry into force.
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