Spanish for Buying Land: The 40 Words That Matter

This list is not a language course. It is the working vocabulary of one transaction: buying a lot on the coast between Mazunte and Huatulco. Search for Spanish for buying land in Mexico and you will mostly find tourist phrasebook material. Useful eventually, but not at a closing. The words below appear in title documents, in the notario's office, and in every honest conversation about a piece of land.

Two honest notes before the lists. You will not negotiate in Spanish — a licensed broker and a notario handle the legal side, and a bilingual lawyer or the notario himself should review every page you sign. And learning these words is not a formality: it changes how you experience the deal and how the town treats you.

The short answer

Why 40 words are enough

Fluency is a long project. Buying a lot is a shorter one. The transaction runs on a fixed vocabulary — the same nouns appear in every listing, title document, and meeting at the notario's office. Learn those nouns and you have covered most of the distance between watching your purchase happen and understanding it as it happens.

Consider what a purchase actually involves. A broker shows you lots and names the title type. A notario prepares the escritura and reads it back in Spanish, pausing for questions. A seller answers when you ask whether water and power reach the property. None of it requires small talk — just recognizing the words on paper and in speech, and asking the right question at the moment it matters.

You do not need to speak the language of the deal. You need to understand it.

There is also the human side. In the villages between Mazunte and Huatulco, word travels: a buyer who arrives with buenos días, real questions, and the patience to listen in Spanish is treated differently from one who stands silent while an interpreter does everything. On a coast where information is the real currency, effort is repaid with better information.

The land

The words for the land itself

Land on this coast is sold by the square meter, and sizes are stated in the listing, the deed, and the survey — no "about an acre" vagueness survives contact with a notario. Most lots we list run from a few hundred to a few thousand square meters; larger parcels are measured in hectares. Learn these eight words and you can read any listing like a local.

Spanish	What it means
terreno	A piece of land — the general word for any plot, used everywhere from listings to deeds.
lote	A lot, usually one slice of a subdivided development with its own number.
metros cuadrados	Square meters (m²) — the unit every lot on this coast is measured in.
hectárea	A hectare: 10,000 square meters, or about two and a half acres — the unit for large parcels.
medida	The measurement — "¿cuál es la medida?" asks exactly how big the land is.
colindancias	The boundaries where your property meets the neighbors' — always listed in the deed.
deslinde	The boundary survey that fixes those lines on paper and on the ground.
plano	The map or plot plan of the lot — ask to see it before you walk the land.

Two of these words do quiet work. Colindancias are written into every deed, and a seller who hesitates to name them has something to hide. Deslinde is the survey that fixes the lines — on a coast of casual fences and decades-old titles, ask whether there is a current one.

The title

The words for title and process

This is where the vocabulary starts protecting you. The question that decides every coastal purchase is not whether you can afford the lot — it is what the title is. The difference between escritura, acta de posesión, and ejido is the difference between owning land and renting a story about it; these words let you hear, in the first minute of a conversation, which one is being offered. For how each converts and what it costs, read our complete guide to buying land in Oaxaca.

Spanish	What it means
escritura	The deed — in full, escritura pública: the registered, legal proof of ownership.
notario público	The state-appointed lawyer who prepares the deed and makes the sale legal.
registro público	The Public Registry of Property, where deeds are recorded and searched.
acta de posesión	A document of possession — real weight locally, but not a registered deed.
ejido	Community-owned farmland; a foreigner cannot hold direct title to it.
dominio pleno	The process that converts ejido land into full private ownership.
avalúo	The official appraisal, used to calculate the transfer taxes.
uso de suelo	The zoning — what the land may legally be used for.
predial	The annual property tax; the receipt proves the tax is paid and up to date.
trámite	Any official paperwork or procedure — the word you will hear for "process."

If you remember one word from this table, make it notario público. He verifies the title, prepares the deed, calculates the taxes, and holds the funds until everything checks out — the single best protection a buyer has. Because the role is so specific, and so different from what most foreigners imagine, we wrote a separate explanation of how a Mexican notario público works.

The money

The words for price, payment, and taxes

Money is where buyers who skipped the vocabulary get into trouble — not because the numbers are hard, but because the words around them are easy to guess wrong. Contado does not mean "counted." Apartado is not "apartment." Each word describes a specific moment in the deal.

Spanish	What it means
precio	Price — and on this coast, a real one stated plainly, never "on request."
contado	Cash — "de contado" means a cash purchase, which is how most lots sell.
enganche	Down payment, paid after the purchase promise is signed.
apartado	A deposit to take a lot off the market while you finish your homework.
promesa de compraventa	The binding purchase-promise contract signed before closing — the deal's skeleton.
trato	The deal — "cerramos el trato" means "we closed the deal."
dueño	The owner — ask "¿usted es el dueño?" if you are not sure who you are dealing with.
vendedor	The seller.
comprador	The buyer — that is you.
impuestos	Taxes — the transfer tax and the closing costs are, collectively, los impuestos.

Two things about this table. Most lots on this coast sell de contado — cash — or with short terms from the seller; mortgages for foreigners are rare, which is why listings carry real prices instead of payment theater. And trato can be a handshake between old neighbors — but for you, the written promesa de compraventa is the only trato that counts. A deal offered "de palabra," on word alone, is a conversation, not a contract.

The questions

The questions that save you

A question asked in careful Spanish lands differently from the same question through a translator — not because the seller understands you better, but because asking shows you know what matters, and this coast respects that. Use the polite usted form, keep your tone even, and ask in a sensible order: title first, size second, services third.

Ask this	Sounds like	What you're asking
¿Cuánto cuesta?	kwan-toh kwes-tah	How much does it cost? — the direct question behind every price.
¿Está registrado a su nombre?	es-tah reh-hees-trah-doh	Is it registered in your name? — the question that separates real titles from stories.
¿Tiene escritura?	tyeh-neh es-kree-too-rah	Does it have a deed? — ask this before you ask the price.
¿Cuánto mide el terreno?	kwan-toh mee-deh	How big is the land? — sizes in meters, not in "about."
¿Hay agua y luz?	eye ah-gwah ee loos	Is there water and electricity? — services either reach the lot or they don't.
¿Es ejido o privado?	es eh-hee-doh o pree-vah-doh	Is it ejido or private? — the fastest title question there is.

None of these questions is aggressive. Each is what a careful Mexican buyer would ask, and sellers who deal honestly are glad to answer. A seller who is not glad — that information is useful too. When a document uses a term beyond this list, our glossary of terms you'll hear buying land in Mexico covers the rest of the written vocabulary.

The manners

Courtesy words, and why they matter

The coast runs on relationships. The notario's assistant who remembers your name, the ejido secretary who pulls the file, the neighbor who knows the lot's history — none of them are required to help you, and all of them will if you treat the meeting like people rather than categories. These six words are the grease.

Spanish	What it means
buenos días	Good morning — the greeting that opens every meeting on the coast.
gracias	Thank you — use it often; it costs nothing and is always noticed.
por favor	Please.
disculpe	Excuse me — the polite way to get attention or apologize for your Spanish.
no entiendo	I don't understand — say it early, not after an hour of nodding.
¿Puede repetir más despacio?	Can you repeat more slowly? (pweh-deh reh-peh-teer) — the most useful sentence in this article.

Nobody in Mazunte or San Agustinillo expects a foreign buyer to speak Spanish. Everyone notices when one tries. Open every meeting with buenos días, close every answer with gracias, and say no entiendo the moment you lose the thread. People would rather repeat themselves three times than watch you nod at something you do not understand.

The plan

A two-week plan before you fly

Two weeks of ten focused minutes a day will make these forty words familiar. Not fluent — familiar — which is the goal: you recognize the words in speech and on paper, and can ask the six questions without reading them off your phone. No tutor or language school required.

Days 1–7: the word tables. Put the lists into a flashcard app — Anki and Quizlet both work well — and review ten minutes a day, in the groups used here: land, title, money. Ten daily minutes beat an hour once a week. Weight the Spanish-to-English direction: at a closing, the word arrives in Spanish and must mean something in your head.

Days 8–10: the questions. Say each one out loud five times a day, and use the audio on Google Translate or SpanishDictionary to check yourself against a real speaker. Hearing the words is half of recognizing them; your own voice saying them is what will remain on the day.

Days 11–14: practice with a human. Email the broker you are working with — or ask us for an introduction — and tell them you are practicing. Most will send a voice note or take a five-minute call; ask them to speak slowly and to correct you. This is the highest-value practice available, because your list is already the vocabulary of the deal.

On the ground. Carry the list. Say buenos días to everyone, from caretaker to notario. Ask every question at least once, even when you know the answer — the asking is practice, and the answer is confirmation. You will still sign documents you do not fully read; everyone does. Have the notario or a bilingual lawyer explain every page first.

But you will do it from a different place: understanding the shape of what is happening, catching the word that does not fit, and being the buyer this coast remembers well. That is what the forty words are for.