The property market in Camagüey

Camagüey has the largest historic centre in Cuba, listed as a World Heritage site, with an irregular layout of narrow streets and small squares that looks nothing like the grid of the other colonial towns. That centre holds houses of considerable size, with interior courtyards, tiled roofs and high ceilings.

It is probably the market in the country where you get the most quality square metres per unit of price. A colonial house in central Camagüey, with several rooms and a courtyard, trades in ranges that would not buy a small flat in Havana.

The counterpoint is maintenance. These are two- and three-hundred-year-old buildings with timber structures, tiled roofs and masonry walls that demand constant attention and materials that are not always easy to find. And, as in every protected historic centre, work affecting original features needs authorisation.

Outside the centre, the city has republican and later neighbourhoods with more conventional houses and even lower prices, and the province adds small markets in Nuevitas, Florida and the Santa Lucía area, the last of these tied to beach tourism.

Neighbourhoods and areas

• Historic centre
• La Vigía
• Puerto Príncipe
• Garrido
• Nuevitas
• Florida
• Santa Lucía

What to check before buying here

• check_circleTiled roofs and timber structures: this is the recurring maintenance of a Camagüey house.
• check_circleHeritage protection: confirm which works need authorisation before planning a renovation.
• check_circleRising damp in old walls.
• check_circleActual area and layout versus the technical description — a frequent source of discrepancy in very large houses.

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