ScubaLady - I was refering to condos we looked at north of the cut...

Perhaps this area was "declared" allowing Strata Title plans.

If you don't get Strata Title for your condominium where the land is registered then think again before purchasing. Share ownership used to be advantageous when the real estate transfer tax was high but now that it's universally low (about 5%) there's no reason to potentially put yourself at the mercy of an unscrupulous developer with ownership of the majority of shares in a company that you're a tiny part of.

When he decides to build a bar or another condo building right in front of your ocean view there's absolutely nothing you can do about it if your ownership is by shares. Unfortunately both of these unfortunate scenarios have happened here on Ambergris Caye.

we just put our down payment on a villa please send any photo's you may have. Is there an issue with titles?

There are still a number of different land title ownership structures north of the river. Yes Scubalady, people that own private homes own title to their land. The difference with condos and villa projects is that there are multiple owners sitting on one piece of land, and in the case of condos one might actually own a piece of "air" where your home is situated since it is standing on the same area of ground as other units. Condo titles could only be issued to land that was owned with the new registration titles. So up until only a few years ago all "condos" built on the north side of the bridge could only be "owned" by way of corporate share and then unit owners were granted "exclusive rights of governance" of their unit. When a large area north of the bridge was declared to be in the compulsory new registration area the ablity to issue strata titles was attained.

So Flip Flop, only a few short years ago you could not own a strata title (condo title) north of the bridge. But now you can.

Private homes, owned by one owner, have had individual titles north of the bridge for over 100 years.

Hope that is clear, if it isn't I can try and explain in another manner.

Thanks for the history. For somebody that deals with property law like myself, it's most interesting.

hi belizelaw - that is a short simple version - the actual mechanics are a little more complicated but that is the basic explaination.

We also own a condo at Reef Village (unfinshed as of yet) and would be interested in current photos.

Thanks.

Hi...we are back from AC and I have some pictures of Reef Village to share. I tried to get a well rounded group of pictures, and hopefully have a little bit for everyone. The place looks terrific, and will be amazing when it's all finished. Send me your email address and I'll get them to you. I'm not real computer savvy, so I'll download them to a site, and send you the address to visit.

Also, if you want up to date pics, the website has some from September, as well.