Donating a home in Cuba: when it beats selling

A large share of Cuban homes change hands without a single peso being paid: a mother passes the house to a daughter, an uncle to a nephew, a couple regularises what everyone already assumed. The legal instrument for that is the donation, and it is formalised before a notary exactly like a sale.

It is often the cheaper and simpler route, and occasionally the wrong one. This guide covers when a donation makes sense, what it costs, and the two mistakes that turn a family arrangement into a family conflict.

What a donation is

A donation transfers ownership of the home from the donor to the recipient at no price. It requires the agreement of both — a donation nobody has accepted does not exist — and it is executed through a public deed before a notary, with both parties present or represented by an attorney-in-fact holding a valid power.

Once signed and registered at the Property Registry, the recipient is the owner for every purpose: they can live in the home, rent it, swap it or sell it, and it counts toward their ownership limit. The donor keeps nothing unless the deed expressly reserves something, such as a right of use for life.

What it costs: the tax difference that decides it

A donation is taxed with the Tax on the Transmission of Property and Inheritances at 4%, payable by the recipient and settled before the notary. The decisive question is what that 4% applies to.

When donor and recipient are relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity, Resolution 313/2024 expressly does not apply the minimum reference values: the base is the updated value shown in the property title, which is typically far lower. Where there is no consanguinity, the base is the minimum reference value — the same one used in sales. That single distinction is what makes a family donation dramatically cheaper than a sale of the same house, and a donation between strangers no cheaper at all.

When donating is the right instrument

The clearest case is a transfer within the family that everyone agrees on and that no one is paying for. Donating settles it in life, before a notary, with a registered title — instead of leaving an inheritance for heirs to sort out later, which is the single most common documentation problem in the Cuban market.

It is also the honest instrument when there is genuinely no price. Dressing a gift up as a sale to avoid questions creates a deed that says something untrue about the money, and the tax saving usually runs the wrong way.

• Passing the family home to a child or grandchild while the owner is alive.
• Regularising a home that one relative has occupied and maintained for years.
• Consolidating a property split among several heirs into one titleholder, with compensation agreed separately.
• Transferring a second home you cannot legally keep after inheriting it.

The risks nobody mentions

A donation is not a promise, it is a transfer. Once the deed is signed and registered, the home belongs to the recipient, and the donor cannot simply change their mind. Reversing it requires grounds set by law — such as ingratitude or non-fulfilment of a charge imposed in the deed — proven in court. Every year, elderly people donate their only home to a relative and end up living there on that relative’s goodwill.

The second risk is the specially protected heirs. Cuban succession law reserves a share for heirs who are unable to work and financially dependent on the deceased. A donation that leaves such an heir unprovided for can be challenged after the donor’s death. If there is anyone in the family in that situation, this is a conversation for a notary before signing, not after.

The paperwork

The document list is essentially the one for a sale: property title, an up-to-date ownership and liens certificate from the Property Registry, a technical description that matches reality, and both parties’ identity documents. If either party is abroad, they act through an attorney-in-fact with a notarised power of attorney granted for that purpose.

After signing, register the new ownership at the Property Registry. As in a sale, the deed is the transfer and the registration is the protection.

1. 1Gather the title and request the ownership and liens certificate.
2. 2Check that the technical description matches the home as built.
3. 3Agree the terms — including any reserved right of use — and take them to the notary.
4. 4Settle the transmission tax and sign the deed of donation.
5. 5Register the new ownership at the Property Registry.