Five numbers on one municipal document decide what your lot is worth building on. Buyers routinely spend six figures before checking any of them.
The municipal urban development programme assigns each lot a use — residential, mixed, tourist, commercial, conservation — and with it the limits that govern your project: density in dwellings or rooms per hectare; COS, the proportion of the lot your building footprint may occupy; CUS, the total built area you may have across all floors; maximum height in storeys; and required setbacks. Those five numbers determine the viability of a project before any architect draws a line.
COS limits footprint: a COS of 0.6 on a 500 m² lot allows 300 m² of ground coverage. CUS limits total construction: a CUS of 1.2 on the same lot allows 600 m² across all levels. Together with the height limit they define the actual envelope. A lot with a generous CUS and a low height limit is a different building from one with the reverse, even though the totals look similar on paper.
Request the land-use certificate from the municipal urban development office with the cadastral key and the lot details. Some municipalities publish cartographic viewers, useful as a preliminary reference, but the document issued by the authority is the one that governs and the one the permit file needs. Get it before you buy — or make the offer conditional on it — not after you have commissioned a design.
| Document | What it gives you | Cost and time |
|---|---|---|
| Land use certificate | Use, density, COS, CUS, height | $1,500 – $6,000 MXN · 1 – 3 weeks |
| Alignment and official number | Boundaries and frontage | $800 – $3,500 MXN · 1 – 2 weeks |
| Services feasibility | Water, drainage, power availability | Per utility · 2 – 6 weeks |
| Construction licence | Authorises the works, with DRO | By area · 3 – 10 weeks |
Inside a gated development, the internal regulations frequently impose stricter setbacks, lower heights, mandatory materials and colours, construction hours and completion deadlines. Those are enforceable against you regardless of what the municipality permits. Protected areas, the federal maritime zone and rights of way impose their own restrictions on top. Check all of them together, in the same week, before you commit.
These are the documents that precede any design work, with typical municipal figures for the region.
Related pages: Buying land: due diligence · The closing process · Versión en español · Concierge construction service
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