Anyone who owns, or is considering, beachfront property in Mexico must understand the Federal Maritime-Terrestrial Zone. It is where many of the most valuable features of a coastal property — access, terraces, palapas, pools, docks — actually sit.
The zone cannot be owned. It can only be used, under concession.
What the Zone Is
The Federal Maritime Zone is, in general terms, the twenty-metre strip of transitable land adjoining the beach, extended to one hundred metres inland at river mouths, together with the land bordering lagoons, estuaries, and waters connected to the sea. It is federal property — a bien del dominio público de la nación.
Why It Cannot Be Owned
Because it belongs to the public domain, the zone cannot be transmitted to private parties, nor acquired by prescription (adverse possession), nor seized. No deed conveys it, and no length of possession converts it into private property.
How It May Be Used: the Concession
Private parties obtain the exclusive right to use and enjoy the zone only through a concession granted by the competent federal authority, tied to a specific use and a limited, renewable term. The concession carries obligations and fees, and it can be lost if its conditions are not met. For beachfront property, confirming the concession — its existence, scope, holder, and standing — is often the decisive due-diligence question.
A title that ends at the federal zone, with no concession behind it, leaves the most valuable part of the property on borrowed ground.
On the coast, the sea-facing strip is not a detail. It is frequently the reason the property was bought — and the part most often overlooked.