OCRET and leasing beachfront and lakeshore land
- Land and property for foreigners
- Who may hold land, and on what title
- Audited
Within the Art. 122 reserves the private party does not buy: it leases from the state through OCRET (the Office for the Control of State Territorial Reserve Areas, attached to the Ministry of Agriculture (MAGA)) under Decree 126-97, the Act Regulating Territorial Reserve Areas. Natural or legal persons may lease; legal persons must be legally incorporated in Guatemala (art. 5, checked in FAOLEX). This is the practical route for beach developments (Monterrico, the Pacific) and for lake shores: an OCRET contract, not a deed of ownership. The OCRET right is an administrative lease, not ownership: it cannot be mortgaged as full title and its renewal is at the state's discretion; Plaza Pública has published institutional criticism of OCRET. The lease application appears in the government's Catalog of Procedures (service 3040).
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