The real estate team of Rodrigo, Elías & Medrano Abogados launches its first newsletter with the purpose of sharing the most relevant real estate rules and news of the month, as well as some opinions of interest. We hope this document will be useful for our clients, as well as for the interested public in the real estate sector.
On March 15, 2025, Ordinance No. 2711 was approved, which declares the Historic Center of Lima intangible for the operation of warehouses, deposits and wholesale trade and prohibits the operation of establishments in unlicensed buildings.
The regulation establishes that the operating license of any commercial establishment located in the Historic Center of Lima will be revoked if (i) storage and deposit activities are carried out without municipal authorization, (ii) works are executed without a building license, or (iii) if the operator resists, impedes or obstructs the municipal inspection work. In addition to the revocation, the establishment will also be permanently closed.
The regulation also prohibits the operation of any commercial establishment in buildings that, located in the Historic Center of Lima, have been built without a building license or that have been executed in contravention of what has been authorized by the municipality.
Finally, the following licenses are suspended for 30 days: (i) operating licenses and building licenses for establishments located in block 10 of Junín Street, block 1 of Lucanas Street, block 11 of Santa Rosa Street and blocks 3 and 4 of Cangallo Street; and (ii) the reception of applications and granting of operating licenses. Likewise, the effects of the authorizations to execute works on public roads are suspended, except for emergency works.
On March 23, 2025, Ordinance No. 007-2025/MPC was approved, which promotes social interest housing projects in the Constitutional Province of Callao, granting urban development benefits.
The Ordinance allows the execution of VIS projects (multi-family, mixed-use buildings, residential complexes and mixed-use complexes) in those zones of the province of Callao in which housing projects may be executed, comprising the following zonings: Medium Density Residential Zone (RDM), Local Commerce (CL), Medium Density Mixed Zone (MDM), Other Uses (OU), Medium High Density Residential Zone (RDMA), District Commerce (CD), Specialized Commerce (CE), Provincial Commerce (CP), Special Regulation Zones (ZRE) and Monumental Zone (ZM), with some considerations.
It also provides for several urban development benefits, related to: (i) buildability coefficient, (ii) density and (iii) maximum height, which had been originally foreseen in the Social Interest Housing Regulation. For purposes of the application of these benefits, the Ordinance includes a comparative table that allows making an equivalence between the zoning currently in force in the Constitutional Province of Callao with the zoning contained in the Regulation of Land Development and Urban Planning for Sustainable Development.
Finally, the Ordinance provides that any omission or discrepancy between said regulation and the Social Interest Housing Regulation shall be resolved by preferentially applying the latter. In other words, the national regulation will prevail, in application of the principle of unity.
Bill N° 05723/2023-PE, LAW ON TERRITORIAL PLANNING AND CREATION OF THE NATIONAL SYSTEM OF TERRITORIAL PLANNING.
The bill was approved by the Congress of the Republic and is pending the signing of the autograph by the Executive Power. The deadline for its publication is April 2. The law seeks to establish legal and technical criteria for the approval of urban management instruments and others related to land use planning, establishing the participation of different entities.
Several municipalities of Lima and provinces have been carrying out inspections and ordering the temporary closure of several shopping centers and other establishments with massive public attendance. It is important to remember that the assumptions and requirements to impose a closure order were made stricter with Law No. 31914, issued at the end of 2023. It is recommended to review such provisions in order to know the rights of the parties involved in these inspections, as well as to comply with the applicable safety requirements.
The restriction of economic activities approved in procedures followed without citizen participation constitutes an illegal bureaucratic barrier.
On February 28, 2025, the Commission for the Elimination of Bureaucratic Barriers of INDECOPI issued Resolution No. 0077-2025, by which it has declared, with general effects, an illegal bureaucratic barrier to the restriction or prohibition to carry out certain economic activities provided by municipalities in urban planning instruments (such as that which approves or updates the zoning and/or the index of uses of urban activities), when such instruments have been approved through procedures that have not included effective citizen participation.
This pronouncement is issued in relation to Ordinance No. 010/2024/MPC, issued by the Provincial Municipality of Callao, which approved the index of uses of urban activities applicable in part of the district of Ventanilla, establishing the prohibition to carry out the activities of (i) smelting of non-ferrous metal products and (ii) manufacture of other products derived from metal, since it could not be accredited the effective citizen participation in the process of formation of the norm, thus contravening the Law of Sustainable Urban Development and its Regulation, as well as the principle of legality.
Resolution No. 077-2025 has been issued at first instance and is subject to confirmation by the Bureaucratic Barriers Elimination Chamber, in case of appeal.
In this section of our newsletter we seek to share some reflections on the Peruvian legal framework and its impact on the real estate market. In this opportunity, we refer to the freedom of subdivision of non-urban land.
In our country, land located in non-urban or urban expansion areas can be subdivided or divided without prior authorization. That is to say, it is not necessary to have an administrative pronouncement or registration to consider these properties as parceled. The owner of these properties may directly divide his property and enter into contracts for each of the resulting sections without waiting for the authority to validate the division or show its conformity with each contract to be signed: there is a physical and legal division with the sole will of the owner (Article 949 of the Civil Code).
This rule is derived from Article 16 of Legislative Decree No. 653, Law for the Promotion of Investments in the Agricultural Sector, which establishes that rural properties may be subdivided or separated without requiring prior authorization. Although Article 16° establishes the limitation that the resulting unit or units must not be less than the surface of the minimum agricultural unit or livestock, such limitation would not be in force, since Law No. 26505, Law of Private Investment in the Development of Economic Activities in the Lands of the National Territory, eliminated the minimum agricultural units or livestock as an applicable limitation, since it does not foresee them in the text of such law.
Freedom of parceling is a key legal guarantee, since it facilitates access to agrarian property and the implementation of large investment projects, which would be affected if it were a requirement, in order to enter into contracts, to have certificates, visas and other documents issued by any public entity. In any case, obtaining these administrative acts will not affect the division of the agrarian lands or the execution of contracts for each resulting section.
In line with the above, it is important to indicate that the requirement to obtain the cadastral information certificate and the cadastral reference code applies only for the registration of the immatriculation or independence in the Public Registries, without this preventing the execution of valid and enforceable legal acts. In other words, the subdivision is valid and effective with the sole will of the owner, although these certificates must be obtained and presented in order to register said act.
Finally, it is important to point out that the need to have these authorizations for the subdivision of urban or rustic properties located in urban or urban expansion zones is being discussed. This aspect will be analyzed in the next issue of our newsletter.
