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Bucerías · Riviera Nayarit
Bucerías is the beach town about ten minutes north of Nuevo Vallarta and half an hour from downtown Puerto Vallarta. It has a long sandy beach, cobblestone streets, a surprising number of good restaurants and prices that are easier than Vallarta's. We hold a listing here now.
Currently represented in Bucerías
A furnished one-bedroom one block from the beach in a five-unit building, priced for a first purchase in Mexico.
One bedroom and one bath, 57 m², furnished, on the second floor of a five-story building with one unit per floor. Heated pool, elevator, gated entry, building solar plus seven private panels for the unit, and a washer and dryer inside. Pet friendly.
The neighborhood
Bucerías sits on the north side of Banderas Bay in the state of Nayarit, with a beach that stretches south toward Nuevo Vallarta and north toward Punta Mita. The beach has been named one of the cleanest on the Mexican coast, and it is long enough that it never feels full. The town behind it is cobblestone streets and brightly painted homes, and it still feels like a town rather than a resort.
It has drawn every kind of buyer: families who want a slower pace, retirees, and people looking for a vacation home they will eventually move into. Canadian snowbirds in particular have built a real community here, and it shows in the winter.
The restaurant scene is the surprise. Beach clubs like Sukha, brunch at Paninos, Toscana Mia for Italian, and a run of bars and wine spots mean people drive up from Vallarta for dinner. If you live here you just walk.
Prices are the other draw. You can buy a beachfront villa, a simple home or a new condo, and in every category you get more for your money than you would in Puerto Vallarta proper. New buildings keep going up, and the people who bought early have done well.
Living here
Bucerías is in Nayarit, not Jalisco. Property taxes and closing paperwork go through a different office, which we handle, and it changes nothing about how you hold title.
Downtown Puerto Vallarta is about thirty minutes south, and the airport is closer than that. Nuevo Vallarta and its marina are ten minutes away.
The north end of the bay, with its golf and its beaches, is a short drive. Many Bucerías residents use it as their weekend.
In Mexico the covered outdoor space usually counts as part of the home. A published size here includes the terraces, which is how we quote it too.
On the ground
Before you buy
Yes. Everything on the bay sits inside Mexico's restricted zone, so a foreign buyer holds title through a bank trust called a fideicomiso. It is routine, we do it on nearly every sale, and our article on buying property in Puerto Vallarta as a foreigner walks through the process and what closing really costs.
Yes. There is nightlife and a busy restaurant street, but the town goes to bed earlier and the beach is never crowded the way Los Muertos is. That is why people choose it.
Often, yes, and it works differently than it does at home. We wrote up who qualifies and what a cross-border loan costs in Can You Get a Mortgage in Mexico?
Less than in Vallarta. One-bedroom condos near the beach start under $200,000 USD, and our Santa Lucia listing above is an example. Villas on the water run much higher, so there is a full range.
Bucerías
Whether you want a place in Bucerías, a different part of the bay, or just to understand how buying here works, the first conversation is free and in whichever language you prefer.