This is the post where the series changes states — literally. Everything we’ve covered so far in Mexico has been Quintana Roo: the Riviera Maya guide, the Playa del Carmen real estate deep dive, and the Tulum post all operate under the same state regulator, the same RETUR-Q registration regime, the same Caribbean demand engine. Puerto Vallarta real estate runs on different rails. It’s in Jalisco, on the Pacific, with its own tax rates, its own regulatory trajectory, and — as of February 2026 — its own headline risk that we need to talk about like adults.

In the Riviera Maya guide, I filed Tulum under “appreciation but submarket-dependent” and flagged La Veleta and Region 15 as oversupply risk before moving on. That’s a fair one-line summary, but it’s not a buying decision. Tulum is the most polarizing market in this series so far — it’s the one where the Instagram version and the spreadsheet version diverge the most — and it earns its own post.

If you haven’t read the earlier pieces, start with the Mexico introduction post for fideicomiso and T776 basics, then the Riviera Maya post for how Tulum stacks up against Playa del Carmen and Puerto Morelos. This post assumes you’re past that and specifically weighing a Tulum purchase.