Rosewood Mayakoba Residences

You buy the villa outright. The collection runs to 38 houses: 33 along the lagoons and canals, and 5 on the beach. RLH Properties, which developed and owns Mayakoba, sells these villas on a full ownership basis only. The one co-ownership product on the estate is Fairmont Heritage Place, where each residence is divided into 12 shares, and that is a separate offering. What transfers is the house, its terrace and pool, and on the canal villas its private dock. The holding structure for a foreign buyer is confirmed for the specific residence before you commit.

There are no fixed weeks and no allocated time. You use the house when you want it, and the resort team looks after it when you are away. Owners may place the villa in the Rosewood Mayakoba rental programme, which the resort reserves and manages, subject to availability. Mayakoba is gated, and staying at any of its four hotels opens the whole estate, so your guests may use the beach clubs, spas and restaurants of all four and sign charges to the residence. Tee times at El Camaleón are booked separately and are subject to availability.

The Rosewood Mayakoba team maintains each villa under a property management arrangement that covers housekeeping and the care of the house. Neither the resort nor the developer publishes the annual charge, and it will differ by house, so it is confirmed for the specific residence before you commit, together with what it covers and how it is assessed. Ask for the last two full years of charges on the villa you are shown. Ask the closing notary to set out the annual Mexican property tax and the transfer costs in writing before you sign.

Owners draw on the resort's own team and on the wider estate. Concierge, butler service, housekeeping and villa maintenance come from Rosewood Mayakoba. Dining, golf, the spas and the water sports sit across Mayakoba and are charged as used, with everything signed to the residence rather than paid in cash. The list below sets out what comes with the house.

Gómez Vázquez International designed the villas along the canals. Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos designed the 5 beachfront villas, including The Founder's Villa, which runs to 16,300 sq ft with a 92 ft infinity pool. Interiors throughout are by the New York studio Bando x Seidel Meersseman, in stone, travertine and wood, under double-height ceilings, with glass doors that slide back into the walls. Houses hold 2 to 6 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. Casa Coral 811, a four-bedroom canal villa, has 4,659 sq ft (433 sq m) inside and 4,852 sq ft (451 sq m) of terrace, pool deck and dock, plus a media room and staff quarters.

Mayakoba covers 620 acres behind a mile of Caribbean beach, with 6 miles of freshwater canals and 145 acres of mangrove kept as habitat. Four hotels share it: Alila, Banyan Tree, Fairmont and Rosewood. Rosewood Mayakoba opened in 2008 and now holds 129 suites and villas, 7 restaurants and bars, two beach clubs, one of them adults only, and Sense, A Rosewood Spa, built around a cenote. El Camaleón, the 18-hole par-72 Greg Norman course, was the first PGA Tour venue in Latin America and runs the Jim McLean Golf School. El Pueblito is the estate's town square.

The estate sits at kilometre 298 of the Cancún to Playa del Carmen highway, in the municipality of Solidaridad, with a Playa del Carmen address. Cancún International Airport is 45 km (28 miles) north, a transfer of 35 to 40 minutes that the concierge arranges. Movement inside the gates is by electric boat along the canals, golf cart, bicycle or on foot, and costs nothing. The second largest barrier reef in the world lies offshore for diving and snorkelling, and the cenotes of the Yucatán run underground from the estate itself.

Mexico restricts foreign ownership of land close to the coast and the borders, and UK government guidance is to take Mexican legal advice before you buy. In practice a foreign buyer on this coast holds through a Mexican bank trust: the bank is trustee and you hold the beneficial rights to use, let, mortgage and sell. A Mexican notary draws the deed and settles the taxes. The permit, the trustee bank, the term of the trust and the fees are confirmed in writing for the specific residence before you commit.

Avory works through the Mayakoba residential sales gallery at El Pueblito on a new sale, and through the owner or the owner's agent on a resale. After you enquire we confirm what is actually available, obtain the plan, the annual charge and the last two years of costs on that villa, and set up a viewing. Owner residence stays are arranged with the resort, subject to availability. Avory is not the developer and does not set the price. Request access.