COPAL JOURNAL · OCTOBER 5, 2026

Tulum HOA and Maintenance Fees: What Owners Actually Pay

Condominium maintenance fees are the least examined number in Tulum real estate. Buyers scrutinise the purchase price for months and accept the monthly fee as a given. Then it arrives, it is large, it rises, and nobody can explain how it was calculated. Here is what twenty published listings actually show, why the comparison most owners make is the wrong one, and the paperwork every owner is entitled to see.

Why nobody writes this

Developers do not publish fee comparisons. Brokers earn on the sale rather than the carry. Management companies have no reason to invite the question. The result is that a cost which can exceed two thousand dollars a year on a modest unit gets less scrutiny than the kitchen finish.

We are writing it because we have seen the documentation. The figures below include a monthly operating statement for a unit at Copal, and that figure is the highest in the comparison.

What a Tulum maintenance fee actually is

The cuota de mantenimiento funds the condominium common areas: security, pools, landscaping, lifts, insurance, utilities on shared spaces, administration and ideally a reserve fund for the repairs that eventually arrive.

It is normally calculated from your indiviso — the percentage of the whole condominium your unit represents — applied to an annual budget. Crucially, under Mexican condominium law that budget and the resulting assessment should be approved at an owners assembly, with minutes recording the date, the quorum and the vote.

Those two documents, the budget and the assembly minutes, are the entire basis of the number on your statement. An owner who has never seen either is paying a figure nobody has justified.

Twenty Tulum properties, as published

The table below collects monthly maintenance figures from published property listings and brokerage sources including Sotheby's International Realty, Pincali and FEUDO. These are the figures as listed rather than figures we have independently audited, and several are quoted in US dollars, converted here at approximate rates for comparison.

The spread runs from roughly 1,800 to 13,000 MXN a month, with the median sitting somewhere around 5,000 to 6,500. A studio at the bottom and a luxury penthouse at the top, which is exactly what you would expect.

Why the monthly amount is the wrong comparison

Here is where most owner discussions go wrong. Comparing your fee against someone else's monthly figure tells you almost nothing, because fees scale with unit size and indiviso. A 40 square metre studio and a 200 square metre penthouse should not pay the same, and a fee that looks high may simply reflect a larger unit.

The honest comparison is cost per square metre per month. One Tulum development published a rate of 72 MXN per square metre, established at its first owners assembly in November 2024 according to FEUDO documentation. That is a reference point rather than a standard, but it is the right kind of number.

Ask your administrator for the per-square-metre rate. If they cannot produce one, the fee is not being calculated from a published formula, and that is itself the answer to your question.

A documented Copal statement

We have had sight of a monthly operating statement for a ground-floor two bedroom unit at Copal. It shows cuotas condominio of 15,810 MXN — 189,720 MXN a year from a single unit. That figure sits above every one of the twenty published comparables above, including the luxury penthouses.

Copal's published room category for this configuration gives the unit as approximately 122 square metres. On that basis the rate works out at roughly 130 MXN per square metre per month — against the 72 MXN per square metre benchmark referenced above.

We are not asserting that figure is improper. A condominium can legitimately carry unusual costs: extensive pools, heavy staffing, high insurance, substantial reserves. What we are saying is that a number of this size should be traceable to a budget and an assembly vote, and that owners are entitled to see both.

The comparison that is hardest to explain

The twenty properties above are different buildings with different amenities, different staffing and different budgets. Reasonable people can argue about whether they are comparable at all.

Harder to argue about is a comparison within the same building. A ground-floor two bedroom unit at Copal, listed publicly at 134 square metres interior plus 24 square metres exterior and including a private plunge pool, carries an advertised maintenance charge of US$364 per month — in the region of 6,600 MXN at rates around the time of writing.

That is a larger unit with a private pool, advertised at roughly 40 percent of what the smaller unit described above is charged. Both figures come from documents: one from a monthly operating statement, the other from a public listing.

There may be an explanation. Different indiviso allocations, a listing that is out of date, services included in one and not the other, a historic arrangement. We would genuinely like to hear it, and we will publish any response we receive. What nobody can reasonably do is look at those two numbers side by side and treat the question as improper.

The maintenance fee is rarely the whole cost

In a rental-managed condo-hotel, the cuota is one line among several. Owners considering this model in Tulum should read the management agreement alongside the fee schedule, because the structures we have seen include several costs that buyers do not anticipate.

Paying to use your own unit. Nights an owner stays are commonly deducted from that unit's rental profit at the applicable rate. Some agreements grant a partial discount on a limited number of nights per year; beyond that allowance, the full deduction applies.

Mandatory cleaning charges. Per-night cleaning fees during owner stays, payable at check-in, are standard. We have seen schedules where these are explicitly non-optional — meaning the charge applies whether or not the service is actually performed, if the owner declined it.

Automatic escalation. Fee schedules frequently carry annual adjustment clauses tied to the consumer price index, plus VAT. A fee that looks acceptable at purchase ratchets upward every year without a further decision by anyone.

None of these are inherently unfair. All of them belong in the arithmetic before you buy, and all of them are routinely absent from the sales conversation.

What to ask for, in writing

If you own in a Tulum condominium and cannot explain your own fee, request the following from your administrator. This is ordinary diligence rather than an accusation, and a well-run condominium will produce it without difficulty.

• The approved annual condominium budget, itemised.
• Your unit's indiviso percentage, as recorded in the constitutive deed.
• The calculation showing how your specific monthly charge derives from the two above.
• Minutes of the owners assembly approving the assessment, including date, quorum and vote totals.
• The effective date of the current fee and a record of every increase since you purchased.
• The reserve fund balance and what it is designated for.
• The per-square-metre rate the fee implies, and whether it is uniform across units.

Keep the request factual and in writing. The purpose is not confrontation; it is establishing whether a number exists on paper or only on a statement.

If you are buying rather than already owning

Ask for the current fee schedule for the specific unit, not the development average. Ask for the last three years of fee history, because the trajectory matters more than today's figure. Ask what the fee covers and what it explicitly does not.

Then ask the question almost nobody asks: what is the per-square-metre rate, and how does it compare to the other units in this building? A development that answers that cleanly is telling you something good about how it is run.

Our real cost of a week in Tulum covers the visitor side of the economics. This is the owner side, and it is the one with the longer tail.

Common questions

What is a normal HOA fee in Tulum?

Across twenty published listings we reviewed, monthly maintenance quotes clustered roughly between 1,800 and 13,000 MXN, with a median around the 5,000 to 6,500 range. Raw monthly amounts are a poor comparison though, because fees scale with unit size and indiviso percentage. The rate per square metre is the number that actually compares.

How are Tulum condominium fees calculated?

Normally by indiviso - the percentage of the condominium your unit represents - applied to an approved annual budget. That budget and the resulting assessment should be approved at an owners assembly, with minutes recording the date, quorum and vote.

What is a reasonable fee per square metre?

One Tulum development published a rate of 72 MXN per square metre established at its first owners assembly in November 2024. That is a useful reference point rather than a standard, since what a fee covers varies enormously between buildings.

Can a condominium raise maintenance fees without a vote?

Under Mexican condominium law the assessment normally flows from a budget approved by the owners assembly. An increase that cannot be traced to an assembly resolution is worth questioning, and owners are generally entitled to see the supporting documentation.

What documents can an owner demand?

The approved annual budget, your unit indiviso percentage, the calculation deriving your specific monthly charge, the assembly minutes approving the assessment with date and vote totals, and the effective date of any increase. Requesting these in writing is ordinary owner diligence, not an accusation.

Does the maintenance fee cover everything?

Rarely. In rental-managed condo-hotels, owners frequently also encounter management commissions, mandatory per-night cleaning charges, deductions applied to their own private stays, and annual escalation clauses tied to inflation. Read the management agreement alongside the fee schedule.

Figures for properties other than our own are taken from published listings and brokerage sources including Sotheby's International Realty, Pincali and FEUDO, and are presented as published rather than independently verified. Dollar figures are converted at approximate rates and will move. The Copal figure is taken from a monthly operating statement we have reviewed. Nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice; condominium law and individual constitutive deeds vary, and owners with a specific dispute should consult a Mexican attorney.