Renting out a beach lot in Bocagrande: which contract applies and which clauses change

Not everything that is rented out is rented under the same contract, and the one for a beach lot does not look like the neighbouring unit's when the nature of the property differs. Before thinking about the tenant, the contract has to fit inside what the reglamento and the use rules admit.

Colombian lease law distinguishes by purpose: urban housing, commercial premises and short-stay lodging are not governed by the same rules, and what you sign conditions what may and may not be agreed. On top of that regime sits the private layer: the reglamento de propiedad horizontal (the condominium bylaws) can ban or condition an use the law does not ban, and a later asamblea may have tightened it without the recorded reglamento reflecting it yet. So the contract for a beach lot is built the other way round from how it is usually done: first verify what use the property admits, then which contract matches that use, and only then the clauses. Which regime applies to your case and how each clause is drafted is work for your Colombian attorney; what a buyer can verify before signing is what the reglamento says, what the last asamblea minutes say, what the land-use certificate says and, where the purpose is short-stay lodging, what the registro nacional de turismo says.

A beach lot is bought differently because the first question is not what you may build but whether a private owner ever existed. Along the coastal strip you find land that could lawfully be granted, land that never left the public domain, and land someone occupied and then transferred without holding the right, so the chain of title may rest on mere possession or on falsa tradición, a transfer by someone who never held registered ownership. No deed, no notaría and no lapse of time fixes that, because property in the public domain cannot be acquired by prescription. Investigating the origin of title therefore outranks everything else and comes before any other conversation. The second difference is that the object itself moves: the shoreline advances or retreats, and the area shown on the folio may not be the land that is dry today. The third is that a substantial part of the terrain is not buildable at all, between the public strip, the ronda hídrica (protected water margin) and environmental setbacks, so the usable lot is always smaller than the lot purchased, and it is worth fixing that with a survey and with the environmental authority.

Bocagrande works like a mature resale market, with consequences that do not repeat up north. The counterparty is almost never a builder: it is a long-standing owner or, very often, an unsettled sucesión, an estate proceeding, whose heirs live in different countries, so closing depends not on one power of attorney but on several, and on the partition among them. The registry record is old too: it was opened when the building was submitted to the condominium regime, it carries legacy entries such as cancelled mortgages, patrimonio de familia and afectación a vivienda familiar, both family-home protections, or lifted attachments, and the recorded area does not always match a current survey, so you compare the registry record against the deed and against the unit's floor plan. The peninsula is also land reclaimed from the sea under subdivisions the District authorized in their day, and the oldest deeds still carry references to those parcelaciones, the original platting. Day-to-day power sits with the owners' assembly and its manager, so in a tower with a long record of decisions the minutes and the status of the condominium's lawsuits matter more than the brochure.

What is specific to Bocagrande

What to verify, step by step

1. Request the recorded reglamento de propiedad horizontal and the minutes of the last asamblea, and read what they say about renting, permitted use and short-stay guests.
2. Ask the Alcaldía for the land-use certificate covering the activity you plan to host, because the reglamento and the planning rules are two separate permissions.
3. Check what belongs to a beach lot itself and changes the contract's clauses: where the zona de bajamar ends: it is public domain of the Nation, cannot be sold, and no private deed cures it; whether the lot has its own matrícula inmobiliaria or was never split out, and whether the chain of title carries falsa tradición (a transfer by someone who never held registered ownership) or mere possession and how much of the lot is actually buildable once the public strip, the ronda hídrica (protected water margin) and the environmental setback are taken out.
4. Ask the administrador what the copropiedad requires of a tenant —occupant registration, access rules, use of common areas— and get it in writing rather than by word of mouth.
5. Where the purpose is short-stay lodging, check the registro nacional de turismo and ask in whose name it stands and what becomes of it when the owner changes.
6. Search the Rama Judicial for pending proceedings over the property or against the seller on tenancy matters before buying the asset with a contract inside it.

Mistakes that cost money

• Signing a residential lease for an use that is not residential, or the reverse, because that template was to hand. The contract's stated purpose conditions what can be agreed.
• Reading the recorded reglamento but not the minutes. The asamblea may have set later conditions on use, and the buyer meets them afterwards.
• Buying a property with a tenant in place without reading the contract in force. What the seller agreed does not vanish because the owner changes, so read with your attorney where it leaves you.

Frequently asked questions

Can the reglamento prohibit renting?

The reglamento governs the use of units and common property, and in practice it is where rental restrictions appear. Ask for the recorded version together with the minutes, and have your attorney read how far it reaches.

Do I need a registro nacional de turismo to rent out?

That depends on whether the activity is tourist lodging. The RNT and what it requires are matters for the tourism authority, and the copropiedad can still restrict the use with the register in order.

Who do I verify the contract against?

The administrador for the reglamento and the minutes, the Alcaldía for land use, and the Rama Judicial for litigation. Drafting the contract itself is work with a Colombian attorney.

Where to check it

• Rama Judicial — whether there is pending litigation over the property or its owners
• Registro Nacional de Turismo — whether a property may legally be used for tourist accommodation and who has registered it
• Alcaldía Mayor de Cartagena de Indias — property tax, betterment levies and District procedures
• Cartagena de Indias — the rules of the municipality Bocagrande belongs to

Official bodies. Specific figures are requested there, not copied from a listing.

Updated 2026-11-06