A new urban planning regulation published this week has raised red flags among many Cubans, especially those living abroad who own property on the island.
The details of the measure are still uncertain. What is most worrying is that it could affect the legal status of properties whose owners have lived abroad for years, or who have been unable to return to Cuba frequently.
The new legislation is part of a process of "organizing" the housing stock. Although the official text does not mention expropriations, some fear that this reorganization opens the door to new provisions that would nullify previously recognized titles or rights.
A national inventory of the housing stock is created
Decree Law 81/2024 and Resolution 38/2025 of the Physical Planning Institute (IPF), published in the Extraordinary Official Gazette No. 18, establish that from now on all housing in the country will be subject to a regulatory system that prioritizes the social function of urban land.
The main measures include the creation of a National Inventory of the Housing Fund, which will identify and classify all homes according to their technical condition, use, level of orcuption and legality of their ownership. Authorities explained that cases involving registration irregularities, missing documentation, or improper use of the property will be reviewed.
New restrictions on remodeling or expanding homes
The IPF will also introduce new regulations to govern extensions, renovations, or changes of use in homes. These actions will require a prior assessment of territorial and urban planning, meaning that having a legal property will not be enough to modify or expand it.
Procedures will be established for the authorization of construction works, and those carried out without a permit may be considered urban planning violations subject to sanctions.
Stricter supervision of urban land use
On the other hand, a Land Use and Housing Supervision and Control System, which will be supported by new technologies and will allow Municipal Planning Departments to carry out inspections more frequently and effectively.
These inspections may include the use of drones, aerial photography, geolocation systems, and digital access to cadastral and registry files, according to the new regulations.
Doubts persist among absent owners
Authorities have insisted that the law seeks to preserve the housing stock, regulate urban growth, and curb urban decay. However, the atmosphere on social media reflects distrust. Many users abroad fear that if they are not present to comply with these new requirements, they could face foreclosure proceedings affecting their property without direct notification.
The government has emphasized that the changes seek to curb construction disruption and improve access to housing for the most vulnerable population. However, no mechanisms have been detailed to guarantee the rights of those who are abroad or unable to access their properties regularly.
Recommendations to avoid legal conflicts
While waiting for the implementation of these decrees, some specialists recommend that property owners update their documentation, keep their records in order, and, if they are abroad, grant powers of attorney to relatives or representatives who can legally act on their behalf within Cuba.
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26 comments
Wordless
Will this be the opportunity for retired teachers from the town of Boca de Camarioca who have been living in a house for 24 years that was deregistered more than 12 years ago by National Education? Its disinfection was approved by an agreement of the Cárdenas administration council more than 8 years ago. We have the papers in hand and even the opinion of the physical planning, the price of the house, payment order to the bank and by decision of Marrero, as they explained to us, this process was already paralyzed in the property development phase. According to them, this was a tourist corridor, and not even a plane passes through here anymore, the area doesn't even have an oil well, and what's worse, this measure was only for the 16 Education houses on a block because the block in front has property, meaning that a special highway passes above us. This area is only a road and there's no room to do anything else.
Those of us who are here dedicated our entire lives to education at a time when everyone else was going into tourism. We retired with a life dedicated to teaching generations and we are dying and in 24 years we do not even own the house we live in, a house that we furnished and repaired with our own efforts. I ask myself, "What is the purpose of these illegal houses?" Today they do not belong to any organization, much less to the government's housing fund. If today we talk about spiritual support for teachers, this is a mirror of the spiritual support that we once received in old age with nothing, without hope, without even having a place to enjoy in peace.
Another irony is comparing us to tourism, their homes move like waves, it is a coming and going of people who look at them.cupand they are in them and suddenly they go to a better life and another comes: evaluate who deserves to own it and which ones they want for paintings and let them do their part with them
But we teachers are only dying in them, we have already fulfilled our mission, we are already retired, old and sick and we have families. Is this not an abuse, an insult to intelligence and a lack of respect for the sacrifice and loyalty that we always had to this government that taught us that only justice would prevail?
Every time this topic is discussed there is only silence
No one comes to see the reality at the base, only vague answers. We hope that this law at least does us justice.
You know how much it costs to build a house with your own effort and not even being able to finish it because of the materials and now they are inventing things, we need to have a home for our family, everything to get a property takes time and they kick you around, how they are not able to imagine, let's look at that part because there are still many people who do not have property, remember the covit that almost everything was closed
Good morning, I would like an answer. This is the second time I've written. I know the country has major problems. But one of the biggest problems is the despotic and cynical people who seek corruption and the corrupt. They have you based on lies to give you time to lose the right to claim your home and the papers and signatures lose their validity. I am writing here so that a representative can send this to the Minister of Housing or some other popular authority. They are asking me to remove my property. They have already measured the house and I have paid for those papers. The owner gave me her signature a while ago. Everything is almost done. She and her uncle, the owner and co-owner, have to sign. They don't want to. Now it's a private property, it has no impact on the land, it's a batey, and the house is completely separate. I am affected by the cyclone and I cannot obtain materials or a roof if I don't own property. Please, give me a response. Alquizar municipality, Artemisa province.
According to the TAO TE KIN (Chinese wisdom), it explains many concepts: The more prohibitions, the more thieves. The more laws, the more crimes. etc. etc.
My opinion? Speechless, it's the most abusive thing I've seen in these years, and the most hypocritical thing to ask of the client, because it's already determined without consulting the people, exhausted by so much misery and sacrifice.
What kind of brake on the deterioration of housing are they talking about if the stadium has not been opened for years?cupto maintain any home; everything has been taken care of by its owners. What is possible is that they are looking for housing for the snitches of the PCC, CDR, FMC, PNR, ETC. THAT ORGANISM IS THE MOST CORRUPT THAT HAS EVER EXISTED IN THAT DICTATORSHIP.
María Carmenate Horguin, stop, it's all bureaucracy. 7 months ago, my husband passed away. Both spouses worked at the Far. I retired after 33 years of work. The mobilized person who doesn't copy vacations gets sick at the cement factory in Santiago. The house in 200019 is paid for, but he's waiting for it.cupThe era was. Cancer ended and he died. By right, I am the successor to that house. When they gave him the key, I had to sign because we both worked together at the same UND and I am going through the hardest job in my life to get the property out. They have asked me for various documents because he died and I think everything is bureaucracy. I pay 0 or 0 to be able to resolve this. This is Cuba, pure bureaucracy. They keep the documents and when you offer them money, they take it. How do we live?
since they are going to review why don't they review the houses that were built in 85, my house where I live was built in 1985, it was owned by my sister-in-law who passed away in 95 and they decided to give it to my husband who also passed away, every time we went to housing they always didn't put up a barrier, they asked us to do an appraisal, we processed the appraisal, it was no longer an appraisal but we had to request a habitable property, we requested the habitable property, and when they went to my house to make the habitable property they told me that it was not habitable, my house having all the requirements for habitability, so as not to tire you out more, I still have not been able to legalize the house and at this moment I do not even have the address of the house, not because of lack of management but because of the obstacles they have put in my way in housing, I think that what they wanted was money because there is a lot of corruption in housing, that is what you should review.
Hello Cuba, it is unacceptable that the Cuban government (or misgovernment) speaks of new housing laws when in Pinar del Rio there are still houses to be built after the 2022 cyclone. Isidore, you have to be very cheeky, or rather very cheeky like Marero Cruz, to announce housing laws and revisions of the same billboard. This is my advice.cupTeach us what the people need and what you have turned your backs on and stop making life impossible for those who have decided to stay on this piece of land already cursed by your government since 1959. Let's do something, I suggest we focus on improving the lives of the people who remain on this island of Cuba, such as improving transportation, improving agriculture, investing more in food orcuphealth teacher orcupTeach the education sectors that are bankrupt today. Let a Cuban have a house, two houses, three houses. If, in the end, each of those who run this country has a house in each municipality or province of this country. Enough of oppressing you so you can live.
You are absolutely right, they should not invent more and becupin order to move the country forward, which is in the state it is in because of the state.
It really seems like a mockery to me. More and more increases in legislation, when they can't comply with what exists, let alone the deadlines for legal procedures. We'll see exactly what it's all about when they implement it.
Please, stop with drones without a word, why don't you use drones to catch the thieves who are destroying the towns? Without a word, they don't know what to invent anymore, please
Please refer to the only law approved on the OTU:
Law 145/2022 “On Territorial and Urban Planning, and Management
of the Soil” (GOC-2022-1061-O116)
Decree 68/2022 Regulation of Law 145 "On Territorial and Urban Planning, and Land Management" (GOC-2022-1062-O116)
Other legislative norms to proceed to carry out constructive actions are legislated in Decree Law 322/2014
Agreement 8574/2019 extended until December 2025, whoever has built a home through his own efforts without legal formality, in addition to other assumptions.
INOTU and the Housing Authority are willing to clarify any issues for anyone interested in resolving them.
Good afternoon, I would like to clarify some aspects of this work. No housing regulation law has been published in Cuba. Laws are approved by the National Assembly before being published, and a new General Housing Law is being worked on. The governing body is MICONS, which in no way restricts the rights of homeowners and does not take away their homes. Furthermore, the IPF has been in effect since 2021. Today, it is INOTU, and its functions do not include making an inventory of homes, nor is there any regulation in progress to restrict the axis.cucion of constructive actions in your home, Resolution 54 of 2014 is in force today and as long as the coefficient of orcupIf the land conditions on your plot and urban planning regulations allow it, you can make changes and improvements to your property. I believe that when people don't have accurate information, they shouldn't publish articles like these that irritate people for no reason in the midst of a very complex situation we're all experiencing.
I don't think this law is af
ect these people, in the case of granting power of attorney to relatives or friends in Cuba to update documentation, understand that they must be legalized before the Cuban diplomatic representation, in the country where these people are residing, so that they can be recognized and valid in Cuba.
They must carry out controls of the common areasunes of multiple buildings, my building in the Cerro municipality, there are several violations, kitchens in common areasunethat affects the surrounding neighbors.
It would be better to develop a plan for efficient construction so that all those living in terrible and dangerous housing can have a simple but adequate place to live.
The current approach would employ endless expense and bureaucracy for unproductive controls only.
Agreed; I don't think there's any more urgent measure than ridding this country of rotten garbage. All ministries should be tasked with this national task. No journalist, no meeting, is there a stable solution to this situation that's devouring us.
With so many problems that the people have and there is no need to mention it because we know everything and without the possibility of a solution, there is no economy to undertake this task at this time.
Every time they invent something, it's because they don't realize what the people are going through. They don't do anything that improves their situation, they just scourge the people. Because they don't design anything that will improve their housing, or fix the streets, or pick up the garbage. We're infested to the brim. May God have mercy on us.
Since they are reviewing, they should review the houses where the government, with the triumph of the revolution, appropriated the business whose premises (state butcher shop) is in a room of the house and the house is completely a house where a family is forced to live wall to wall with a state institution, which reports physical and social damage to the family that lives there. Why is the room not given to the family so they can live in peace?
Why should this family live with dignity, according to the construction of the Republic of Cuba? Where is the respect for peace? For space?
These are things that need to be changed and analyzed, where the answer is no, when we know that it can be done.
How much we also wish for seriousness in legalizing housing through one's own efforts and not being victims of corrupt architects. I have been victims on two occasions and I no longer know how I am going to legalize my home through my own efforts and do not put obstacles in my way every day when it is known that the law facilitates this process. Please take those cases into account as well...
The Cuban government should be giving milk to children and food to its population. They're always inventing something to put more people on the ground, and they should be building housing for their population, not putting more security on them. Their entire life is under surveillance. Thank you 🙏
Since you're trying to bring order, review the regulations for multi-family buildings. It's unbelievable that the regulations themselves give the green light to illegality.
"If someone puts a common area on their property, it ceases to be common." It's totally incomprehensible. How is it that INOTU can list a common area in a land registry without evaluating the use that other neighbors give it, without having the agreement of the others? What authority does a neighbor have to make personal decisions about a common area, and INOTU to do what that neighbor wants and award a common area to their property? Is this perhaps Don Pío's pasture, where everyone does what they want without considering others? I don't think that's INOTU's mission and vision; however, that's where things are going, at least in Santa Clara. Common areasunes are for the benefit of all building residents; if one apartment is awarded, the rest of the residents lose their rights. It's truly incomprehensible. There are numerous cases of conflicts caused by this incomprehensible article of the regulations for multi-family buildings. If you need examples, I can describe, narrate, argue, and exemplify a case I've been involved in for the past three years.
It doesn't just happen in Santa Clara
In Havana too, and surely in many other places. This order should have been done long ago, however, putting the environment and everything else in order is necessary amidst all the vicissitudes. There are many issues to resolve with all the efficiency, wisdom, and respect. Hopefully, we can achieve the best and fairest for all.