The property market in Guantánamo: the city and Baracoa

Guantánamo is Cuba’s easternmost province and one of its cheapest markets. The provincial capital has a grid-plan centre with early twentieth-century eclectic architecture and neighbourhoods of single-storey houses, with almost exclusively local, family demand.

Baracoa is a world apart. The first town founded in Cuba was cut off by the mountains for centuries and is reached today over La Farola road. It has a small market with tourist demand of its own, timber and masonry houses facing the sea, and high exposure to hurricanes, which have already hit it hard.

The southern coast, from San Antonio del Sur to Maisí, is the driest part of the country, and water supply weighs on any purchase there. Around Guantánamo Bay there are restricted-access areas, such as Caimanera, where buying — or simply visiting — requires authorisations that do not exist in other municipalities.

Like Santiago, Guantánamo lies in the most seismically active part of Cuba, so the structural quality of a home is a safety matter, not just one of maintenance.

Neighbourhoods and areas

• Guantánamo city
• Baracoa
• Caimanera
• San Antonio del Sur
• Imías
• Maisí
• El Salvador

What to check before buying here

• check_circleStructure with seismic criteria in mind: active cracks, storeys added without calculations and the state of party walls.
• check_circleIn Baracoa and on the coast, damage from past hurricanes and the state of the roofs.
• check_circleOn the southern coast, water source, cistern and how it holds up in the dry season.
• check_circleIn restricted-access areas, which authorisations a purchase requires before negotiating anything.

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