Most buyers I work with brace for this one. They have been paying six, nine, fourteen thousand dollars a year at home, and they assume Mexico is some smaller version of the same pain.
It is not. On a house you live in, La Paz charges 2 pesos per thousand pesos of cadastral value per year — 0.2%. And the cadastral value is almost always lower than what you paid for the place.
The number that does catch people is on empty land. That one starts at 1.1% and climbs every year you do not build.
The actual predial rates in La Paz
Al millar means pesos per thousand pesos of value. Here is the schedule, straight out of the municipal treasury law:
| Property | Annual rate | As a percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Urban home, owner-occupied | 2 al millar | 0.2% |
| Urban property in any other use (rented, commercial) | 2.5 al millar | 0.25% |
| Built lot in an authorized subdivision | 5.5 al millar | 0.55% |
| Vacant urban land (baldío) | 11 al millar, rising | 1.1% and up |
| Rural land worked by the owner | 2 al millar | 0.2% |
| Rural land not worked | 2.5 al millar | 0.25% |
There is a floor: no annual bill is less than 3 UMA. The UMA for 2026 is 117.31 pesos, so the minimum is about 352 pesos a year — roughly twenty dollars.
What that looks like on a real house
Say the catastro carries your house at 5,000,000 pesos. At 2 al millar, that is 10,000 pesos a year — about $580 USD. Pay it in January with the discount and it is 8,500 pesos, about $494.
That is the whole bill. No school levy, no county assessment, no separate garbage district. Water and trash are billed on their own and they are small.
Your purchase price is not your cadastral value
This is the part that trips people up, in both directions.
The catastro keeps its own value on every property, and on older homes it can be far below market. Sellers who have owned for fifteen years are sometimes paying on a number set a decade ago. That is their bill, not yours. When the property transfers, the escritura and the appraisal go to catastro, and the value usually gets restated closer to what you paid.
So when someone tells you the predial on a house is only 3,000 pesos, the right question is what the cadastral value will be after the sale, not what the seller has been paying. Your notario can tell you before you sign.
The rate that catches lot buyers
Vacant urban land starts at 11 al millar — 1.1% — and the law adds 2 more per thousand for every year it sits empty, up to a ceiling of 52 al millar.
Run that on a 1,500,000-peso lot:
- Year one: 16,500 pesos, about $959
- Year three: 22,500 pesos, about $1,307
- Year ten: 46,500 pesos, about $2,702
That is more than the tax on a finished house worth three times as much. The logic is deliberate — the municipality does not want lots held empty inside serviced neighborhoods.
If you are buying a lot in El Centenario, La Ventana, or anywhere in the city with the idea of building in a few years, put this in the math before you buy. It is not a reason to skip the lot. It is a reason to know what waiting costs.
Pay it in January
La Paz discounts the annual bill for paying it all at once, early:
- 20% if you pay ahead in December
- 15% in January, deadline the 31st
Both require paying the full year in one shot — no installments. The underlying law guarantees 10% in January or February; the municipality has been running the bigger discount on top of that each year, so check the announcement rather than assuming.
You can pay at the municipal collection offices, through Visor Urbano, in the La Paz app, or at lapaz.gob.mx. I pay mine online in about four minutes.
Unpaid predial follows the property, not the person
Arrears attach to the house. Your notario will pull a certificado de no adeudo predial before closing and will not sign without it, which protects you. But it is worth asking early on a property that has been sitting vacant or tied up in an estate, because clearing years of back tax and penalties can slow a closing down.
Against what you are paying now
A $500,000 home in most of the US runs 1% to 2% of market value in property tax — $5,000 to $10,000 a year. The same money here, on a house you live in, lands somewhere under $600.
It is one of the few costs of owning in Mexico that is genuinely, structurally cheaper rather than just cheaper-looking. The closing costs are not — budget 5 to 6% on those. The property tax is.
Common questions
Do foreigners pay a higher property tax in Mexico?
No. Predial is charged on the property, not on the owner nationality. A foreign buyer holding through a fideicomiso pays the same rate as a Mexican owner on the same property. The trust has its own annual bank fee, but that is separate from the tax.
How often is predial assessed?
Annually, and it is billed for the calendar year. The cadastral value itself is not reassessed every year the way many US counties do it — the big change usually happens when the property sells.
What happens if I do not pay?
Interest and penalties accrue and the debt stays with the property. You cannot close a sale with predial outstanding, so it gets settled eventually — usually by whoever is in a hurry to sign.
Can I pay predial from outside Mexico?
Yes, online at lapaz.gob.mx with a foreign card in most cases. Plenty of my clients pay from Canada or the US in January without flying down.
Want the number on a specific property?
Send me the address or the MLS number and I will get the current cadastral value and the predial on it, plus what it is likely to be reassessed at after a sale. It takes a day and it is free.
If you are still at the stage of figuring out where you want to be, start with the featured areas — that page has homes for sale in Centro La Paz, Esterito, Caimancito, Pedregal and Puerto Cortés, and the East Cape.
About Richard
I am Richard Gadoury, a licensed real estate agent living and working full time in La Paz, Baja California Sur, with 16 years in real estate between Canada and Mexico. I specialize in La Paz and La Ventana and I also work Todos Santos, Los Barriles, and the Cabo corridor.
Email info@searchbajahomes.com · WhatsApp +52 612-111-3604
Search listings at SearchBajaHomes.com · Meet Richard
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Sources: Ley de Hacienda para el Municipio de La Paz, Articles 31–34 · La Paz 2026 predial discount announcement · INEGI, UMA 2026. Peso figures converted at 17.21 MXN/USD, September 2026. This is general information, not legal or tax advice — confirm the numbers on your own property with your notario.