House Construction in Tankah Bay

Turnkey new builds in Tankah Bay: design, permits, foundation, structure and finishes under one contract, one site manager and one fixed price.

Recrea has been building houses in Tankah Bay, Casa Cenote and the coast between Akumal and Tulum since 2008 — 196+ completed projects across the Riviera Maya. Our architecture, electrical, carpentry and ironwork crews are in-house, so your build does not depend on subcontractors who appear and vanish.

How Much House Construction Costs in Tankah Bay

Real budgets for a completed build, excluding land and furniture. The range depends on the finish level: economy, mid or premium (chukum, hardwood, designer kitchen, infinity pool).

Want the exact number for your lot and square metres? Use the cost calculator or ask us for an itemised quote.

See every zone in Tulum · Villas and hotels in Tankah Bay

Nearby zones: Tulum Centro · Tulum Country Club · the Tulum Hotel Zone · Aldea Zamá

Permits: Construction permits, licences and DRO

House Construction Process Step by Step

The construction process is the same one we run across the Riviera Maya: lot review, concept design, construction documents, permits, foundation, shell, services and finishes, then turnkey handover. See the full process with per-stage timings.

The breakdown of what the price per m² includes and excludes is common to all our projects.

Permits and Building Rules in Tankah Bay

Tulum is the strictest municipality on the coast. On top of land use and the municipal licence with a DRO, most projects need environmental authorisation from SEMA (and an MIA where there is land clearing or proximity to cenotes or mangrove). The PDU caps density and height by zone and requires a minimum permeable green area. Budget 3 to 5 months for permits.

The lot: what decides your foundation

Fractured limestone with frequent cenotes and caverns, especially in Región 15 and La Veleta. A geophysical survey is not optional here: finding a cavern under the footprint after the foundation has started costs weeks of delay and hundreds of thousands of pesos.

Tankah Bay is a strip of beachfront villas between Akumal and Tulum, sheltered by the reef: calm water, very low density and large lots, with Casa Cenote (Cenote Manatí) a few steps away where the underground river meets the sea. Public infrastructure is almost absent, so the house is designed self-sufficient — well, cistern, treatment and solar — and construction logistics run longer than in central Tulum.

Useful guides: House construction in Soliman Bay · House construction in Tulum · House construction in Akumal · Cost calculator

Why Build With Recrea

Fixed-price contract by line item, licensed DRO and architects, workers registered with IMSS, weekly photo and video reports and a written one-year warranty.

Real Projects

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What this area is like

Tankah is a bay north of Tulum with coastal cenotes discharging straight into the sea, scattered houses and no municipal services. The fresh water surfacing in the cove governs anything to do with discharge, and most properties run on solar, a cistern and a treatment plant. Lots are large and the beach frontage short, rocky in places.

What lies under the lot, and who authorises

The water table is high, particularly towards the front of the plot. Foundations are resolved shallow and widened, cisterns are anchored against uplift, and pool excavation usually needs dewatering.

The competent municipality is Tulum, and the environmental file falls to SEMARNAT + ZOFEMAT.

Being beachfront brings ZOFEMAT into play: the federal twenty metres from the tide line are not bought but concessioned, and the concession does not pass to a buyer on its own. Before designing, measure the usable depth of the lot after deducting that strip and the municipal setback line.

What decides this particular plot: bahía con cenotes costeros: descarga cero y energía propia en la mayoría de los lotes.

Site logistics, services and materials

Access: terracería desde la federal.

On an unpaved approach the site road is the first line item — hardcore and drainage ditches — not an improvisation in May: in the rainy season a concrete truck that cannot get in is a cancelled pour that still gets paid for.

There is no service connection at the boundary: extending the line with a transformer runs 250,000 to 900,000 MXN depending on distance, and with no municipal sewer an on-site treatment plant stops being optional. Both are priced before the land purchase closes.

Severe salt exposure. The standard here is 50 mm of concrete cover over the steel and f'c 250 or higher with a chloride-inhibiting admixture; 316 stainless — not 304 — for balustrades, hardware and anchors; marine-finish aluminium with stainless fixings; condensers on the landward side with coated fins. The premium over an inland lot is 12 to 20 percent, and without it the first refurbishment arrives around year six.

There is no design committee: the municipal licence is essentially the whole procedure, which shortens the calendar and makes this kind of lot a good candidate for a fixed-price contract, with fewer unknowns underground.

Frequently Asked Questions