Homes and land for sale in Melaque

Where it is

Melaque sits at the southern end of the Jalisco coast, close to the Colima state line. Federal Highway 200, which runs along the Pacific between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, goes through town. The nearest commercial airport is Playa de Oro International (ZLO), in the municipality of Manzanillo, Colima; Puerto Vallarta's is considerably farther, to the north.

It is a beach town, not a gated resort. Much of its land is ejido, and it is bought and sold that way every day; there is deeded property too. We list houses, bungalows and lots here, each one with its tenure stated up front.

How buying works on the coast

The whole Jalisco coast sits inside the restricted zone set by the Constitution: the 50 kilometres measured from the coastline. A Mexican buyer takes title in their own name through a public deed before a notary. A foreign buyer acquires the same property through a bank trust, a fideicomiso: an authorised Mexican bank holds title and you are the beneficiary, with the right to live in it, rent it, remodel it, sell it and leave it to your heirs. The trust runs for fifty years, renews, and needs a permit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, handled as part of the transaction.

The other question is land tenure. Deeded property has title recorded in the Public Property Registry. Ejido land comes from the agrarian land distribution: what changes hands are rights documented before the ejido, not a deed, which is why it costs less. Turning it into private property goes through dominio pleno, which needs the ejido assembly's agreement and its own process. Every listing on this site states which regime the property is under.

On the beachfront there is a third point: the twenty-metre strip above the high tide line is federal maritime land. It is not sold, it is granted by concession. If a house includes a terrace or palapa on that strip, ask for the concession and check that it is current before signing.