What the Land Around Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum Really Has: Data for Buyers
Updated:
The most-sold lots in the Riviera Maya sit on the edge of town, where the city ends and the jungle begins. We checked that band (up to 3 km from the urban area) with the same official sources our free check uses. Almost no lot there is free of something to verify.
The numbers
- Tulum: on the urban edge, 98% of the land has jungle or forest vegetation and 69% has ejido origin.
- Playa del Carmen: 99% has jungle or forest vegetation and 35% shows recent or historical clearing by satellite.
- Cancún (Benito Juárez): 97% has jungle or forest vegetation, 49% has ejido origin and 17% is or was mangrove.
- Puerto Morelos: 86% has ejido origin and 62% falls under a conservation or protection zoning policy.
- Cozumel: half of the urban edge lies inside a protected natural area.
How we measured it
We laid a regular grid over each municipality (one point every ~0.8 km²) within the check's coverage and ran each point through the same engine as the map. The "urban edge" is land outside INEGI's urban area and within 3 km of it. Percentages are of land area, not of lots for sale. INEGI vegetation is 1:250,000 scale and RAN mapping shows ejido origin, not whether a lot was later titled.
Frequently asked questions
How much land around Tulum is ejido land?
On Tulum's urban edge (up to 3 km from town), 69% of the area has ejido origin per RAN mapping. That does not mean it is still ejido land today: each lot must be checked.