A short-term rental in Cuba is legal when the owner holds prior authorisation from the municipal labour directorate, as Article 74.1 of Cuba's housing law allows. The price is freely agreed. Since 4 August 2026, Decreto 160 also requires owners who host guests living abroad to report their identity data to the Ministry of the Interior. Walk down almost any street in Vedado and you'll spot them: a small...

A luxury villa in Cuba is a private house or full-floor penthouse rented whole, with its own staff, a garden or terrace nobody else uses, and an address in one of the municipalities Cuba's own tax rules rate highest. As of September 2026, Cuba Luxury Rent lists five such homes, in Havana and Varadero. The first thing guests notice in a Havana villa is the sound. Or the lack of it. Siboney at seven in...

A permuta in Cuba is a home swap formalised before a notary. Cuba legalised outright sales in November 2011 and left the price to the two parties. What it never freed was the valuation: the state still fixes the number every transfer is taxed on. Cuba Luxury Rent checks that number, and the title behind it, before any Havana purchase. On Saturday mornings in the years either side of 2000, the Paseo del...

A private concierge in Cuba opens the things that have no booking page. The paladar that keeps one table back, the '57 convertible with a licensed driver, the son trio that plays two metres from your chair, the boat out of Marina Hemingway. Cuba Luxury Rent runs it from Havana, on WhatsApp, usually inside four hours. Private Concierge in Cuba Here's the sentence that decides most Cuban holidays:...

What Does Restoring a Colonial Building in Old Havana Involve? Restoring a colonial building in Old Havana runs on one classification and one permit. Cuba's Decreto 92/2023 sets five protection grades for heritage buildings, and inside the Historian's priority conservation zone every intervention also needs an Autorizo para Obras y Usos. Cuba Luxury Rent reads the grade first. It decides everything...

Havana's corporate event capacity sits in four places: the Palacio de Convenciones, opened in 1979 on a 60,000-square-metre site in Siboney; the PABEXPO fairground beside it; the EXPOCUBA fairground south of the city, 600,000 square metres; and the protected historic buildings of Old Havana. Cuba Luxury Rent works from all four. Headcount decides which one you want. Most planners arrive at Havana...

What Is a Colonial House in Old Havana? A colonial house in Old Havana is a building type, not a decorating style. Cuba's Oficina del Historiador classifies each of the 3,370 buildings in the 214-hectare historic centre by architectural typology - zaguán, patio, crujía, entresuelo - and by a heritage protection grade that decides what an owner may legally change. About 500 rank as high heritage...

'A wedding in Cuba becomes a legal marriage only when it's formalised before a competent official. Cuba's Family Code, Ley 156/2022, published in Gaceta Oficial No. 99 of 27 September 2022, says so in Article 201.3. Under Article 203.2, only notaries and Civil Status registrars can authorise it. Everything else is a ceremony. Couples plan this backwards. They fix the date, then the house, then the...

Cuban law sorts Havana's 15 municipalities into three tax tiers. Playa, Plaza de la Revolucion and La Habana Vieja carry the highest location coefficient, 6.0. Cerro, Centro Habana and Diez de Octubre carry 5.0. The other nine carry 4.0. The rule is Resolucion 313/2024of Cuba's Finance Ministry, in force since 15 November 2024. In Havana the neighbourhood argument is a sport. Vedado people think...

Who Actually Runs Cuba's Luxury Hotels Now? Luxury hotels in Cuba: The big foreign hotel operators have left Cuba. Melia stopped managing its Cuban hotels on 24 July 2026, Iberostar the same day, Canada's Blue Diamond on 30 May. The buildings stayed open under the Cuban state companies that own them, and at least nine have already been renamed. India's MGM Muthu is still there. On 28 July, workers...

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...

Corporate incentive travel to Cuba works in August 2026 at one scale only: a small group, in one city, in private accommodation that makes its own power and water. Cuba's transport ministry now sells intercity bus tickets three days ahead. An incentive programme gets contracted a year ahead. That gap is the whole problem. Everything below is detail on that paragraph. We've had the question four...

Cuba taxes a home sale on the transaction price, as long as that price sits at or above a state minimum. Two separate systems produce that minimum: the valor referencial, a five-zone table set by Resolucion 313/2024, and the valor catastral Cuba, built on a module of 13 Cuban pesos per square metre fixed by Resolucion 284/2022. Thirteen pesos. Per square metre. On 17 August 2026, elTOQUE put the...

A full private villa buyout Havana means exclusive use of an entire house - every bedroom, the pool, the roof, the kitchen - with no other guests and no shared areas. It normally includes staff, a generator with fuel, stored water, and a local contact who solves problems. Cuba Luxury Rent arranges buyouts on that basis. There's a moment in every Havana villa handover that tells you what kind of week...

Cuba approved a new Housing Law on 30 July 2026, replacing the Ley 65 of 1988. It permits ownership of up to two homes, sets conditions for foreign nationals to buy apartments through state real-estate entities, and shifts the sale tax base to cadastral value. It takes effect 90 days after publication in the Gaceta Oficial. That last sentence is the one nobody is repeating. On 11 August 2026, Cuba...

The definitive luxury itinerary question: Havana or Varadero? Why the answer is both, how to split seven nights, and what each city does best.

For Cuban citizens at home and abroad: how buying, owning and renting property works in 2026, what the draft housing law changes, and where the opportunities are.

Can a foreign citizen buy real estate in Cuba in 2026? Current law, the exceptions, golf and villa-park projects, and what's realistically coming next.

A luxury beach vacation in Cuba: five-star hotels on Varadero's white sand, adults-only quiet, and staff who handle everything while you rest.

A bachelor or bachelorette party in a private luxury casa in Cuba — pool, butler service, chef, classic cars and nights Havana was built for.

Celebrate a birthday in a private luxury penthouse in Havana — rooftop pool, private chef, live son at sunset. How CLR builds the night, step by step.