How Much Does It Cost To Build A Home In Tulum, Mexico? | Airbnb Short-Term Rentals

How Much Does It Cost To Build A House In Tulum? 0:00

If you have some money saved up and are asking yourself “how much does it cost to build a house in Tulum, Mexico?”

You stumbled upon the right spot. 

My name is Nick D’Urso and in this blog and YouTube channel, my partner Tony Martinez, and I teach everything about investing, specifically in real estate in Mexico. 

$350,000 can go a long way here in Tulum, Mexico. 

Tony, is a developer. A very well-known developer who puts on a sales, entrepreneurship, and real estate seminar around Mexico every year – called Fearless

As we recorded this video, I was actually in one of the units that Tony built. You can see the Airbnb listing here.

This blog post is going to show you how $350,000 can generate between 10% – 12% annual return through short-term rentals – like Airbnb. 

This post is going to be cut short and I’ll include a link in the description below for the full two-hour-long zoom meeting.

Spending tons of time transcribing these videos and then making them into blog posts is hard. It’s expensive, time-consuming, and hard to turn into this – so I’ll include the full link below. 

But this is a little snippet that will show you exactly how much it costs to build a house in Tulum, Mexico. You, as the investor can become the developer yourself – and if you need help, Tony and I can help. 

We actually offer full turnkey investment opportunities for foreigners and nationals.

If this is something new for you, you can check out our Ultimate Guide to Investing In Mexico to better understand what we do and how we can help.

We help investors in Mexico build houses, multi-unit buildings as well as apartments. Typically, our investors turn these into short-term rentals for passive income. Others build to retire or even flip the home or land to make quick returns.

One thing to note is that we not only build or find the right project for you – but we also manage the property and optimize it for the highest returns. 

So –  if you are looking for a good investment opportunity but don’t know who to trust or where to focus – hopefully, this post will help open your eyes to what we do and how we do it. Learn how much does it cost to build a house in Mexico by reading more.

It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn more about who we are by watching this short documentary. 

Mexico Real Estate And Short-Term Rentals Are Growing 00:49

Tulum real estate is booming. Mexico is booming. Buying a house in Tulum isn’t a bad idea.

In fact – Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico increased by 29.5% in the first nine months of 2022 compared to the same period of 2021, according to preliminary statistics published by the Economy Ministry (SE).

The biggest foreign investor in the Mexican economy between January and September was the United States, with 39.1% of total FDI.

I amount to some of that percentage.

I personally invested in a three-bedroom penthouse here in Aldea Zama. I have a full walk-through on the Best Airbnb in Tulum, here – yes it’s my unit 😂 

Let’s jump into how to invest $350,000 in Mexico – whether it’s building and developing your own property, or buying one. If you don’t have $350,000 – it’s ok.

I wrote another article on how you can invest $100k in Mexico and still get great returns.

Before we dive deep into this – it’s important to understand that developing is not scary or this huge project you need to operate from a different country or move here to get the job done.

Don’t worry, it’s not a super big burden because Tony and myself will help you get through it. This Zoom call in this specific post is with a client and friend of ours, named Ryan. 

* Side, note – Today is January 12, 2023 – and we just finalized Ryan’s Airbnb in Tulum and it will be listed on Airbnb this week.  I am currently typing this in the airport in Toluca, Mexico –  returning from Puerto Vallarta with other customers who want to develop a few units in Los Ayala, Mexico. I get excited because this content is actually changing people’s lives ❤️ Back to the content…

The information you will learn on how to develop in Mexico – from this post is very informative – so Tony will take over and ask Ryan a few questions to get started. 

(Tony speaking) If I remember Ryan, you were excited about the development part. 

We first began by talking about the ROIs you can make in Mexico and then talked about what makes more ROI.


I told you a little about the inside of development and how much money we make on the ROI when developing and building your own property in Mexico.

This ultimately is the amount of money that you could save by doing your own house or your own development versus buying a property in Mexico. 

Not that there’s anything wrong with buying – you can still get a great deal in pre-construction, but there’s no higher ROI than the one the developer has from the rentals direct.

Concerns You May Have When Buying A Home In Mexico 02:18

(Ryan speaking)

Concern #1 – Upfront Costs Building And Developing In Tulum, Mexico

My biggest concern from our first meeting about all this is the upfront costs to build in Tulum, Mexico, particularly, I dunno if you’ve been following the US market, but I’ve been getting crushed the last month and a half. 

Having said that new dynamic that came along with the upfront cost is a big concern for me. 

Short of it and from what I got from that conversation was construction is cheap in Mexico. So most of the cost comes from the land and the design versus buying something already built. 

You’re gonna get your return on investment back – I understand that.

I think what might be a bigger concern for me now is depending on the cost of land and the options you have, and I don’t know if I would want to build a 3-bedroom or 4-bedroom or whatever-bedroom house, apartment, condo, or building.

I’m assuming we won’t have an actual true estimate until the design phase is paid for and done. I don’t know much about developing at all – but I am concerned about what the initial estimate looks like for the actual construction of the building or home.

I don’t know how accurately you’re able to get those estimates.

Concern #2 – Should I Build A Multi-Unit Property In Tulum, Mexico

My second concern is building multi-units or houses and having other investors involved and them having a piece of the pie.

I am interested in your experience – what happens if there are disagreements and how does the dynamic of that work as a developer?

I know we had said we were leaning towards building a house in Region 15 or La Veleta because it does offer that boutique opportunity for an Airbnb listing.

I’m just curious if we were to go a different route based on the cost and everything – such as a multi-unit build – it could be more affordable from an entry perspective.

That’s something I’m still open to, but I think there’s a trade-off there too – where you’re not the only person holding the reins for the design phase and things like that.

Is It Cheaper To Build A House In Mexico? 04:54

(Tony speaking)

As far as the cost of a house versus the cost of development – a house, believe it or not, will probably be less than if you were to build a multi-unit.

A house, you can control the size of the house – I’ll give you a quick example.

We can find land for a house anywhere between $65,000 on the very, very low end up to $80,000 USD.

That would be the cost of the land.

And I already did some research for another client that’s similar to you and likes the idea. They actually are moving in full force. We are working on the design of the home right now.

If you’re interested in this design and the home we are building for other clients – you can watch our YouTube meetings.

So we’re already doing a market study to see what is the best land available.

I already found some options, I’ll show you some. So you can see the examples of the cost and the locations of the land. But I already picked out four options for him.

How Much Does Land Cost In Tulum, Mexico 05:47

One we’re really set on, they’re all within the same $65k to $80,000 USD range.

So that’s not gonna vary.

But…

The size of the house is what we can control. If you’re going to build a home, I recommend three bedroom minimum. The smallest house with three bedrooms is probably going to be about 230 square meters.

We would take 230 square meters and multiply by 10.76 to get 2,474 square feet—so roughly 2,500 square foot home.

So 2,500 square feet just in construction alone, we’re gonna spend $210,000.

It costs about $1,000 a square meter to build here. That would be $230,000 if we multiplied 230 square meter house * $1,000. But we have some areas we won’t build on. Because we need a backyard too. So we’ll settle at $210,000 conservatively.

And I’m picking a conservative estimate, meaning we don’t need to go too big on the house – but 2,500 square feet I think is nice. A beautiful three-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot home.

And for this example, let’s go high end on the land.

Let’s say you bought the piece of land for $80,000 USD and then you spent $210k for the build.

Then we’re gonna spend on the permits and all that, probably about, let’s say $30,000 again on the high end.

There are multiple permits before we can build on the land because of the fauna and there are certain trees that are protected. So getting all those permits is $30,000 USD.

Okay, so we’re in it at $320,000 and that’s permits, land, and construction.

We can’t forget the closing cost – and you’re gonna have to pay the closing costs for the land.

The land was $80,000 and closing costs are about 6-7%. Let’s say $6,000 for closing – being very conservative.

So with the land and closing costs together – we are at $86,000.

So let’s take a look at the amount it costs to build a 3-bedroom home in Tulum, Mexico…

Land – $80,000

Construction – $210,000

Permits – $30,000

Closing cost – $6,000

So we are at $326,000 then we need to decorate the home, furniture, etc. Let’s go high on furnishing like Nick’s unit.

Let’s say $30,000 because we went all out on the decor. So, it costs about $350k – $360k to build a 2,500-square-foot home in Tulum, Mexico fully furnished and ready to rent on Airbnb.

This is a great overview of how much does property cost in Tulum? This video is quite long so I cut this short.

To finish watching the rest of this conversation and learn more about building your own home in Mexico – please check out this video on how to build a house in Mexico above.