Property tax and betterment levies in Bocagrande: the debt that follows the property

Property tax and the betterment levy do not chase the seller: they stay attached to the property. In Bocagrande a buyer who does not request the District's clearance certificate before signing inherits the whole debt along with the deed.

Property tax is assessed on the cadastral value set by IGAC, not on what you paid, and the betterment levy is a separate charge the District imposes on properties benefited by public works. Both are obligations of the property itself, which is why an old debt gets billed to the new owner. In Bocagrande a further complication applies: if the property is poorly identified in the cadastre —area disagreeing with the certificate of title, a folio sitting inside a larger undivided parcel, or a land use other than the one being sold— the assessment can be corrected later and produce a retroactive charge nobody budgeted for. Check what this sector in particular requires: the building's actual age and whether it has a structural vulnerability study, since much of the stock was built under seismic codes earlier than those now in force; what the condominium bylaws say about daily rentals, which on this peninsula is the difference between being able to rent and not and how many parking spaces the unit holds in the deed, not in the brochure, because older towers do not have one per apartment. How much is payable is a matter for the District and IGAC, and they are who you ask.

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 from the District the property tax statement and clearance certificate for the property in Bocagrande, by its tax parcel number, before signing the promise of sale.
2. Ask the District whether a betterment levy over the property has been assigned, decreed, or is in collection, because those are three different states and only one shows on the current account statement.
3. Pull the cadastral record from IGAC and compare area, boundaries and economic use against the certificate of title. If they disagree, the assessment can change.
4. Check the POT for the land use of the Bocagrande polygon, since the use the cadastre records is what determines how the tax is assessed.
5. Require the promise of sale to state who answers for debts predating the signing, and hold back part of the price until the clearances are in hand.
6. If you will manage the property remotely, ask the District how billing is delivered and whether you can pay online from abroad.

Mistakes that cost money

• Believing the debt stays with the seller. Property tax and betterment levies follow the property, and the District bills whoever holds title now.
• Looking only at the current year's bill. A betterment levy that has been decreed but not yet invoiced does not show there, and shows up later.
• Accepting the cadastral value you are shown. Pull the record from IGAC yourself: in Bocagrande the area on the certificate and the area in the cadastre do not always agree.

Frequently asked questions

How much is property tax in Bocagrande?

We publish no rates. The District assesses it on IGAC's cadastral value, and it depends on the property's economic use. Request the statement by tax parcel number.

What if the seller left property tax unpaid?

The debt sits on the property, so the District bills you as the new owner. That is why the clearance certificate is requested before signing, not after.

Is the betterment levy an one-off?

It is a charge tied to a specific public work rather than an annual tax, but more than one work can affect the same property. The District is who states which have been decreed.

Can I check and pay from outside Colombia?

Ask the District: some procedures are online, but the scope changes and it is worth confirming before you commit to managing remotely.

Where to check it

• Alcaldía Mayor de Cartagena de Indias — property tax, betterment levies and District procedures
• Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi — the cadastral record, area, boundaries and assessed value of the property
• Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial de Cartagena — land use, the rules applying to the property and protected land
• Superintendencia de Notariado y Registro — the certificate of title and encumbrances, which is the property's full history
• Ventanilla Única de Registro (VUR) — checking the registry folio online and ordering the certificate without visiting the office
• Cartagena de Indias — the rules of the municipality Bocagrande belongs to

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

Updated 2026-11-05