This chapter presents a discussion on real estate trusts over immovable assets in Mexico’s "Restricted Zone," called Fideicomisos. Fideicomiso corresponds to the U.S. legal notion of a trust and was first introduced in Mexico in its Credit Institutions Act of 1924. However, it was not until 1932, in the General Act on Negotiable Instruments and Credit Operations (Ley General de Títulos y Operaciones de Crédito or LGTOC), that it was recognized as a valid, autonomous legal transaction.

Article 27 of the Constitution of Mexico enunciates in its first paragraph an outright prohibition directed against foreigners acquiring ownership of lands, waters and their accessions, or to obtain concessions for the exploitation of mines and waters. Fideicomiso provides foreign investors with a legal and practical avenue which allows them to acquire the beneficiary use only of real estate located within the Restricted Zone. This is done through a fiducaria (trust company); an authorized fiduciary institution or Mexican bank. The Mexican bank holds title to the property "in trust" for the benefit of the foreign investor and is required to carry out specific duties with regard to the property in question.

The LGTOC prohibits three types of Fideicomisos: 1) secret; 2) when the benefit is bestowed upon several successive individuals who must be substituted by the death of the preceding individual; and c) those in excess of 30 years (but only in the case of Mexican mercantile societies, Article 359). Additionally, Mexico’s current Foreign Investment Act of 1993 (Ley de Inversión Extranjera de 1993 or FIA) provides that a permit from the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE) is required for many types of fideicomisos.