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Rentals to Foreigners vs Sales to Residents: Cuba's Two Legal Property Markets
Why a visitor can rent a Cuban home for a year but cannot buy one, how the casa-particular licence works, and where the two markets touch.
Cuba runs two property markets under two sets of rules. One — sales, swaps and inheritance — is reserved for citizens and permanent residents. The other — rentals, from a night to a year — is open to anyone, foreigners included, through the licensed casa-particular system that has housed visitors since 1997. Confusion between the two causes most of the mistakes people make. This page sets each out, explains the licence behind every legal rental, and shows how a long-term rental works for a foreigner who wants to live in Cuba without owning.
The basics
Sales: residents
Purchase, donation and swap of a dwelling require Cuban citizenship or permanent residence, formalised before a notary and registered.
Rentals: anyone
A licensed owner ('arrendador') may rent rooms or whole homes to Cubans or foreigners in pesos or hard currency, paying a fixed monthly tax plus income tax to ONAT.
The licence
Renting to foreigners requires the specific licence category, a registered guest book reported to immigration, and compliance with the tax office; renting without it is an offence for the owner.
How it really works
How the rental market was legalised
Decree-Law 171 of 1997 allowed Cubans to rent rooms and homes to visitors, creating the 'casa particular' that became the country's largest private hospitality sector — tens of thousands of licensed houses by the 2010s, and the backbone of visitor accommodation outside the resorts. Later rules split licences between renting to Cubans in pesos and renting to foreigners in hard currency, set the taxes and required owners to register every foreign guest with immigration within 24 hours.
Long-term rentals for foreigners
A foreigner on a tourist visa may stay up to 90 days (extendable) and rent legally for that period; a foreigner with temporary residence — for work, study, marriage or family — may rent for the duration of that status. Contracts are private and typically monthly; payment is in hard currency or MLC; the owner remains responsible for the guest register. Long-term tenants often negotiate utilities and repairs into the rent, since the owner carries them by default.
What a tenant does not get
A rental confers no rights of occupation beyond the contract and no path to ownership. Cuban law does not recognise a tenant's option to buy, a lease-to-own arrangement or any rental structure that leaves a foreigner holding the home at the end. The casa-particular owner may sell the house during a tenancy, and the new owner is not bound by the old owner's rental agreement unless they choose to be.
Where the two markets meet
They meet in the family. A Cuban resident buys a home; a relative abroad funds the purchase; the home is then rented to visitors to generate income. This is lawful as long as the resident is the genuine owner and the licence holder, and the taxes are paid by them. It becomes unlawful the moment the arrangement is a disguised purchase by the foreign funder, who in that case has paid for a house that is legally and practically someone else's.
The taxes behind the licence
A licensed landlord pays a fixed monthly quota per room or house, a progressive income tax declared annually, and social-security contributions, with rates and brackets revised several times since 2010. Tenants should expect the rent to reflect those costs and should insist on a receipt; a landlord who refuses one is usually unlicensed, which exposes the tenant to eviction without recourse if the arrangement is reported.
US law applies — read this first
For anyone subject to US jurisdiction, the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (31 CFR Part 515) prohibit most dealings in property in which Cuba or a Cuban national holds an interest unless OFAC authorises them, and Helms-Burton Title III exposes those who deal in property confiscated since 1959 to US litigation. This page is information, not legal, tax or investment advice; it values nothing and offers nothing for sale.
Where this leads on CubaAtlas
The useful next steps — the lawful ones.
Sources
More in the CubaAtlas network
Related guides across the network — each one its own resource on Cuba.
Cuba Commercial Realty
Cuba commercial real-estate market information
Cuba Homefin De R
Home search across Cuban markets
Cuba La Ndco
Cuba land market information
Cuba Property Management
Property management information / directory
Cuba Property Market
How Cuba's property market works — a plain-language guide
Cuba Prop Search
Property search