Managing Partner / Consumer Protection Lawyer
José Bolio Halloran
Mexican attorney who represents foreign real-estate buyers — and only buyers — across the Yucatán Peninsula. Founded PeninsuLawyers in 2013. Former in-house counsel to a real-estate developer, so he knows how their contracts are written. ITAM Law; Master in Tax Law; Harvard executive program in Negotiation and Mediation. Author of The Foreign Investor’s Legal Guide to Riviera Maya Real Estate.
Languages
Credentials
- Law Degree, ITAM (2002)
- Master in Tax Law, Universidad Anáhuac Mayab (2023)
- Executive Program in Negotiation and Mediation, Harvard
- Author, The Foreign Investor’s Legal Guide to Riviera Maya Real Estate
José Bolio Halloran is a Mexican attorney who represents foreign real-estate buyers — and only buyers. He founded PeninsuLawyers in Mérida in 2013 on one conviction: foreign buyers in Mexico deserve independent representation, from a lawyer who takes nothing from the developer, the broker or anyone else on the other side of the deal.
He knows how the other side works because he used to sit there. Before PeninsuLawyers, José was in-house legal director for a Mexican real-estate developer, drafting and negotiating the same presale and purchase contracts his clients now bring to him. It is why he reads a developer contract for what it leaves out, not only for what it says.
His career spans 25 years: Legal Director for the Southeast Region of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), contract lawyer at Televisa, and years of litigation, negotiation and structuring work on real estate, construction and infrastructure matters for public and private clients.
José holds a law degree from ITAM (2002) and a Master’s in Tax Law from Universidad Anáhuac Mayab (2023), and completed an executive program in Negotiation and Mediation at Harvard. He is the author of The Foreign Investor’s Legal Guide to Riviera Maya Real Estate: Securing Your Slice of Paradise and The Foreign Investor’s Guide to Corporate Law and Taxation, and he writes every article published on peninsulawyers.com.
He works in English and Spanish, and meets clients by video or in person in Mérida.
What they've been writing.
Sep 29, 20267 min
Mexican property title fraud: could someone sell your home without you knowing?
A forged power or a second deed can reach a Mexican registry while you are abroad. How lien certificates and registry alerts in Yucatán and Quintana Roo warn you first.
Sep 21, 20267 min
Buying property in Los Cabos as a foreigner: the independent legal checklist
Los Cabos looks more institutional than Tulum, which is why buyers skip the checks. The five permit layers and seven questions to clear before you wire a deposit.
Sep 8, 20266 min
How to check the SEDETUS irregular developments registry in Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo publishes a public list of developments being sold without state authorization. How to search it, read an entry, and act if your project is on it.
Aug 28, 20264 min
The Legal Front™ Membership: an annual legal retainer for property owners in Mexico
The Legal Front™ Membership is now live: an annual legal retainer that puts a written Legal Health Check on your Mexican property every year.
Aug 6, 20267 min
How to file a PROFECO complaint as a foreign buyer in Mexico
You can file a PROFECO complaint yourself. This is the procedure foreign buyers actually face: which filing to use, what documents you need, and where files fail.
Jul 27, 20267 min
Mexican residency and the ISR exemption: what foreign owners get wrong before they sell
Residency alone will not exempt your Mexican property sale from ISR. What actually unlocks the casa habitación exemption, the 700,000 UDI cap, and the option most sellers miss.