Havana, Cuba
In Havana nearly every landmark belongs to the Cuban State or a State enterprise, and the Registro de la Propiedad that records who owns what answers only someone who shows a legitimate interest and states their purpose.
8 buildings · 6 with an owner established · 18 sources · 7 tier A · 1 tier B · prepared 2026-10-20
Cuba records real-property rights in a Registro de la Propiedad run by the Ministry of Justice (MINJUS), one office per municipality; the new Ley de la Vivienda (Ley 187, Gaceta Oficial 14 Oct 2026, in force seven days later) calls it the Registro Central de la Propiedad de Bienes Inmuebles and makes registration a condition of selling a home. The register is public only in a narrow sense: MINJUS says it gives publicity of its entries to whoever 'tenga interés legítimo y manifieste los fines que pretende' — a legitimate interest and a stated purpose — at the office where the property lies. A certificate costs CUP 10 in stamp duty (CUP 5 for a negative certificate or a nota simple). There is no online search, no bulk file and no published sales record; most landmarks are State property, registered under a separate methodology (Resolución 226 de 2012).
- www.cubadebate.cu — “Se compromete a no acceder, o intentar acceder, a ninguno de los servicios utilizando medios automatizados, incluidos secuencias de comandos o rastreadores web.”
- www.hosteltur.com — “Quedan expresamente prohibidas la reproducción, distribución y la comunicación pública, incluida su modalidad de puesta a disposición, de la totalidad o parte de los contenidos ... [salvo] para su uso personal y privado.”
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Capitol (Capitolio Nacional de Cuba) Paseo del Prado, Centro Habana / La Habana Vieja |
Civic | Not established the jurisdiction does not disclose owners Seat of the National Assembly of People's Power. Spanish Wikipedia: inaugurated 20 May 1929 'con un costo total de casi diecisiete millones de pesos'; after 1959 it housed the science ministry and Academy of Sciences; declared a Monumento Nacional in 2010, when a capital restoration began, and 'desde 2015 ha vuelto a ser la sede del parlamento cubano'. No register entry or official page naming the titleholder was opened. Under the 2019 Constitution (art. 24, s4) the State's principal infrastructure is 'propiedad socialista de todo el pueblo', but that is a regime, not a title, so the owner is left blank. |
Not established | —A |
| José Martí International Airport (Aeropuerto Internacional José Martí) Rancho Boyeros, Boyeros municipality, ~20 km SW of central Havana |
Civic | Government of Cuba Cuba's main international airport (IATA HAV). The Spanish Wikipedia infobox gives 'Propietario: Gobierno de Cuba' and 'Operador: ECASA' (Empresa Cubana de Aeropuertos y Servicios Aeronáuticos); English Wikipedia also says the facility is operated by ECASA. A hub for Cubana de Aviación and Aerogaviota. The operator is a State enterprise; no concession or sale is recorded in the sources opened. ECASA's own site did not respond. |
Government | —A |
| Iberostar Selection La Habana ('Torre K') Calle 23 (La Rampa area), El Vedado, Plaza de la Revolución 155 m; 594 rooms · 42 floors |
Hotel | Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA) Cuba's tallest building, opened Feb 2025. OnCuba: 'el inmueble fue financiado por la Empresa Inmobiliaria Almest, del Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA)'; cost 'según fuentes no oficiales' USD 226–565 million (unofficial, so not recorded as a price). Spanish Wikipedia's infobox: 'Propietario: GAESA' (second source, hence tier B). DISTRESS: Hosteltur reports Iberostar stopped operating and selling it from 1 Jun 2026, one of 12 Gaviota-linked hotels it dropped as US sanctions on GAESA took effect 5 Jun 2026. Iberostar was the manager, never the owner. |
Government | —B |
| Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana (Manzana de Gómez) Manzana de Gómez, Calle San Rafael / Parque Central, La Habana Vieja 246 rooms · 5 floors |
Hotel | Grupo de Turismo Gaviota S.A. OnCuba (9 Jun 2018): the hotel 'es propiedad de la cadena cubana de establecimientos turísticos Gaviota y administrado por Kempinski'; the investment used 'capital 100 por ciento cubano' and the works were carried out by 'la inmobiliaria cubana Almest y la constructora francesa Bouygues'. It fills the early-20th-century Manzana de Gómez, Cuba's first shopping arcade; opened 8 Jun 2017. Gaviota belongs to the military conglomerate GAESA (OnCuba, 11 Oct 2026). Kempinski is the manager, not the owner. |
Government | —A |
| Hotel Nacional de Cuba Calle 21 y O, El Vedado (Punta Brava / Loma de Taganana) 457 rooms, 16 suites · 8 floors |
Hotel | Gran Caribe Spanish Wikipedia's infobox gives 'Propietario: Gran Caribe', the State hotel group; the article calls it 'el más importante del Gran Caribe'. Opened 30 Dec 1930; pre-revolution history: Kirkeby Hotels bought it in July 1943 and in Sept 1955 sold it to Corporación Intercontinental de Hoteles S.A., with Pan Am's Intercontinental taking part-ownership and management (en/es Wikipedia). Nationalised after 1959. Gran Caribe's site did not respond, so the infobox is the only owner statement opened. |
Government | —A |
| Hotel Habana Libre (former Habana Hilton) Calle L y 23, El Vedado 572 rooms · 25 floors |
Hotel | Government of Cuba English Wikipedia infobox: 'Owner: Cuban government; Operator: Gran Caribe'; Spanish Wikipedia: 'Propietario: Gobierno de Cuba'. Built as the Habana Hilton 'at a cost of $24 million' as an investment by the Caja de Retiro y Asistencia Social de los Trabajadores Gastronómicos, the catering workers' pension fund, opened March 1958, and taken over after 1959 (Fidel Castro used it as a residence through 1959). The 1958 cost is a construction cost, not a sale price. |
Government | —A |
| Estadio Latinoamericano Cerro municipality 55,000 seats (since 1971) |
Civic | Government of Cuba Havana's national baseball stadium. English Wikipedia infobox: 'Owner: Government of Cuba'; capacity 31,000 (1946–1971), 55,000 from 1971. No official INDER page was opened. |
Government | —A |
| FOCSA Building (Edificio FOCSA) Calle 17 entre M y N, El Vedado 77,000 m²; 121 m · 39 floors |
Residential | Not established the jurisdiction does not disclose owners Built Feb 1954 – Jun 1956 for 7,000,000 pesos (en Wikipedia); Fomento de Hipotecas Aseguradas financed 80% of the flats and 60% of the shops and Banco Continental Cubano lent 6 million pesos. Spanish Wikipedia: after 1959 'muchos propietarios de viviendas del FOCSA abandonaron el país después que sus propiedades fueran nacionalizadas', and the flats were used for foreign technicians, students and others. The infoboxes disagree (en: 'Revolutionary government'; es: 'CMQ Televisión', the original promoter). Flats held by individuals stay unnamed; the building's owner is not established. |
Not established | —A |
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
Cuba publishes no assessed values, no sales prices and no ranking of parcels, so the most valuable ground cannot be measured from the public record. What is public is the formula: a cadastral methodology published 14 Oct 2026 (Resolución 16/2026, INOTU) that, from Ley 187's entry into force, also becomes the base for the 4% transfer tax paid by buyer and seller. It ranks the capital's centre above every other place in the country, but the peso-per-m² module that the factors multiply is set separately by the Ministry of Finance and was not in the Gaceta opened.
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
In Havana the dominant owner is the State. The 2019 Constitution makes land not held by individuals or their cooperatives, beaches, roads and the principal infrastructure 'propiedad socialista de todo el pueblo', in which 'el Estado actúa ... como propietario'; such land 'no puede trasmitirse en propiedad' and infrastructure may be sold only exceptionally with Council of Ministers approval. State enterprises — above all the hotel groups of the military conglomerate GAESA (Gaviota) and the civil groups Gran Caribe and Cubanacán — hold the income-producing buildings; individuals own homes. No source gives a hectare or parcel count for any holder in Havana.
| Name | Type | Holding as the source states it |
|---|---|---|
| The Cuban State — propiedad socialista de todo el pueblo Art. 23: 'Son de propiedad socialista de todo el pueblo: las tierras que no pertenecen a particulares o a cooperativas integradas por estos, el subsuelo, ... las playas, las vías de comunicación ...'; these 'no pueden trasmitirse en propiedad a personas naturales o jurídicas'. Art. 24 adds 'las infraestructuras de interés general, principales industrias e instalaciones económicas y sociales'. Budgeted institutions and State enterprises hold other State property and exercise the rights the law gives them. |
Government | All land not owned by individuals or their cooperatives, plus principal infrastructure (Constitution arts. 23–24)A |
| Grupo de Turismo Gaviota S.A. (GAESA) Founded 1988; its Negocios page says its line of business is association with international chains 'empleando Contratos de Administración y Comercialización' — the chains manage, Gaviota keeps the hotels. In Havana it runs the Habaguanex historic-centre hotels itself and owns the Manzana Kempinski (OnCuba, 2018). By Oct 2026 it was operating only 3,470 rooms nationally (OnCuba, 11 Oct 2026). National figures; no Havana-only count found. |
Government | 'más de 30000 habitaciones en toda Cuba' (own site); 110 hotels / ~50,000 rooms (Hosteltur, Jun 2026)B |
| Municipal housing directorates (Direcciones de la Vivienda Municipales) Ley 187 de 2026: State-owned homes are let to arrendatarios or held in usufruct; municipal administration councils 'a través de las direcciones de la Vivienda municipales pueden comprar viviendas'; a home left without heirs or abandoned passes 'al Estado'. The law also allows State solares yermos (vacant lots) to be granted in perpetual surface right. No stock figure for Havana was found. |
Government | Not statedA |
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Havana has no private developer market to rank. Since the 2011 reform (Decreto-Ley 288) Cubans could buy and sell homes between themselves; homes owned by individuals stay unnamed here. New building is mostly the State plan under the Ministry of Construction, plus self-build. The new Ley de la Vivienda (Ley 187, in force from 21 Oct 2026) repeals Ley 65 of 1988, caps ownership at two homes plus a holiday home, lets foreign individuals and companies buy homes (arts. 43, 89), recognises housing cooperatives (Decreto 178) and allows national and foreign private firms to build and manage housing. No builder publishes Havana completions, so the figures are national or project-level.
| Name | Type | Units as the source states them |
|---|---|---|
| Ministerio de la Construcción (MICONS) — State housing plan MICONS report to the National Assembly's industry and construction committee (EFE via OnCuba, 15 Jul 2025): housing deficit 805,583 (407,219 to build, 398,364 to rehabilitate); national stock 4.1 million homes, 35% in fair or poor condition; 2,728 homes built in the year to date, all builders. Causes cited: cement and steel shortages, fuel, obsolete technology, more than 30% of plants idle. |
Government | 2,382 of 10,795 planned homes finished by mid-July 2025 (national, 22%)A |
| Dirección Provincial de la Vivienda de La Habana OnCuba, 20 May 2026, citing Granma: Havana's first neighbourhood of homes built from shipping containers left over from solar-park works; the first 10 homes due by end-May 2026, for families in social programmes. The homes are allocated by the State, not sold. |
Government | 80 container homes in two phases of 40 (Toledo, Marianao); ~114,000 m² siteA |
| Housing cooperatives and private firms (new under Ley 187) Ley 187 and Decreto 178 de 2026 (Reglamento de las cooperativas de vivienda) create the legal route; the law lists real-estate activity including investment in housing that passes to the inmobiliarias' patrimony, sale to individuals and companies, and letting with option to buy. Joint-venture inmobiliarias created under foreign investment sit outside the new propiedad horizontal rules (Decreto 177, preamble). No completions can exist yet. |
Private company | None yet — regime in force from 21 Oct 2026A |
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
Havana's commercial property that earns money is overwhelmingly hotels, and the hotels belong to State groups. Foreign chains (Meliá, Iberostar, Kempinski, Blue Diamond and others) manage under management and marketing contracts — they are operators, not owners. From 5 Jun 2026 US sanctions on GAESA and on entities it holds 50% or more of were followed by the exit of Iberostar (12 Gaviota-linked hotels), Blue Diamond, Meliá and other chains; by late July 2026 the Government said 73% of the country's hotel installations were closed. Offices and retail are State-held; no landlord publishes floor area.
| Name | Type | Holding as stated |
|---|---|---|
| Grupo de Turismo Gaviota S.A. (GAESA) Owns the Manzana Kempinski (OnCuba 2018). Hosteltur lists its foreign management contracts: Meliá 15 hotels, Blue Diamond 11, Muthu 7, Archipelago 6, Vila Galé 4, Valentin 3 and single hotels with Axel, ATG, Domina and Cosmos, plus Iberostar, about 60 hotels in all. Havana hotels Iberostar dropped from 1 Jun 2026 include the Grand Packard and the Selection La Habana (Torre K). National figures. |
Government | 'más de 30000 habitaciones' (own site); ~110 hotels / ~50,000 rooms (Hosteltur); 3,470 rooms operating (Oct 2026)A |
| Gran Caribe State hotel group; owner of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba (es Wikipedia infobox) and operator of the Habana Libre (en Wikipedia). Its site (gran-caribe.cu) did not respond, so no portfolio count was opened. |
Government | Not statedA |
| Empresa Inmobiliaria Almest (GAESA) GAESA's real-estate developer: OnCuba says it financed the Torre K (Iberostar Selection La Habana) and, with the French contractor Bouygues, carried out the works on the Manzana Kempinski, a '100 por ciento cubano' investment. Developer and financier; title to the finished hotels is not stated in what was opened. |
Government | Not statedA |
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Torre K's construction cost: OnCuba gives USD 226–565 million or 'more than 200 million' explicitly 'según fuentes no oficiales'; no official figure, so no price is recorded.
- Which State group holds the Havana hotels that Iberostar kept after 1 Jun 2026 (Selection Parque Central, Marqués de la Torre): search results attribute their State partners to Cubanacán and Gran Caribe (EFE via gestion.pe), but that article was not opened.
- Gran Caribe's and Cubanacán's Havana room counts — gran-caribe.cu did not respond and no official portfolio page was opened.
- Grupo Gaviota's corporate site (gaviota-grupo.com) was not read because its robots.txt excludes Anthropic's agents; the Gaviota Hotels site (gaviotahotels.com) was used instead.
- A published cadastral value for any Havana building: Res. 16/2026 says values are published 'en el Sitio Web del Catastro', but no such site was found, and the Ministry of Finance's peso module was not opened.
- The Capitolio's 2010–2019 restoration cost and the Oficina del Historiador's holdings in La Habana Vieja — no official page was opened (ohc.cu not tried; Cubadebate forbids automated access).
- ONEI's housing stock and transfers for La Habana province — onei.gob.cu did not respond.
Sources
- Registro de la Propiedad (servicios) — Ministerio de Justicia de la República de Cuba (MINJUS) · openA
- Gaceta Oficial No. 86 Ordinaria de 2026 — Ley 187 de 2026 (Ley de la Vivienda); Decretos 176, 177, 178; Resoluciones 15 y 16 INOTU — Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba (Ministerio de Justicia) · openA
- Nueva Ley de la Vivienda en Cuba: qué cambia, quiénes podrán comprar y cuáles son los límites — OnCuba News · openA
- Constitución de la República de Cuba (arts. 22–29) — Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba, No. 5 Extraordinaria (GOC-2019-406-EX5) · openA
- El hotel más alto de Cuba abre sus puertas en las horas más bajas del turismo — OnCuba News · openA
- Torre K — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Tras la salida de Iberostar, estas son las cadenas hoteleras más expuestas al plazo del 5 de junio — Hosteltur · openA
- Grupo suizo Kempinski anuncia nuevos hoteles en Cuba — OnCuba News · openA
- Hotel Nacional de Cuba — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Hotel Habana Libre — Wikipedia (en) · openA
- Aeropuerto Internacional José Martí — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Capitolio Nacional de Cuba — Wikipedia (es) · openA
- Estadio Latinoamericano — Wikipedia (en) · openA
- FOCSA Building / Edificio FOCSA — Wikipedia (en, es) · openA
- Con el turismo en retroceso, el grupo Gaviota 'concentra' sus operaciones en menos de 3500 habitaciones — OnCuba News · openA
- Quiénes Somos; Negocios — Gaviota Hotels (Grupo de Turismo Gaviota S.A.) · openA
- Cuba tiene un déficit de más de 800 000 viviendas y solo ha construido 2728 este año (EFE) — OnCuba News / EFE · openA
- La Habana estrenará su primer barrio de casas-contenedores — OnCuba News · openA