A resale listing for one of Querencia's Club Villas carries a line most buyers skim past: the golf membership is included in the purchase, and the buyer pays the transfer fee. Another listing, a few doors down, phrases it differently: the seller's vertical social membership is available to transfer, ask for details. Two homes in the same gated community, two different membership arrangements, two different negotiations waiting to happen before either one closes.
That inconsistency is not an oversight. It is how Querencia works. The house and the club membership are two separate things under two separate sets of rules, and a seller who assumes they travel together as one package is the seller most likely to watch a signed offer stall three weeks before closing.
Two Bills, Not One
Every Querencia owner pays a homeowners' association fee for the maintenance and security of the community itself. That fee runs from roughly $1,200 a month on the low end, scaling up with property size and subdivision. It covers roads, landscaping, gated access and the upkeep of common areas. It says nothing about golf, the beach club, or the fitness and wellness facilities at the clubhouse.
Access to those amenities runs through a separate structure entirely: Querencia Club membership. Public pricing guides for the club describe initiation fees starting around $50,000 and reaching $100,000, with annual dues typically falling between $15,000 and $25,000 depending on membership category. That is money an owner pays to the club, not to the HOA, and it buys a different set of privileges than the HOA fee does.
The distinction matters most at the exact moment a seller assumes it doesn't. A buyer comparing two similarly priced Querencia homes is not just comparing square footage and view corridors. They are comparing what each home's HOA dues cover, what the club dues cost on top of that, and whether the existing owner's membership is even available to hand off.
What "Vertical" Actually Promises
Querencia markets itself around a membership structure it calls vertical, one that extends full club privileges to a member's parents, children and grandchildren rather than restricting access to a single named individual. Industry coverage of the community, including a Robb Report feature on the property, describes this family-wide structure as one of the things that sets Querencia apart from other private golf communities in the region.
That framing sells well to buyers picturing multigenerational winters in Los Cabos. It also creates a specific due diligence question at resale: is the current membership actually vertical, is it in good standing, and does it transfer to a new owner automatically or does it require a fresh application to the club.
Resale listings inside Querencia answer that question differently depending on the property. Some show membership bundled with the sale, buyer covering only a transfer fee. Others show a membership available for separate purchase, priced apart from the home itself. Sellers who have not confirmed which category their own property falls into are negotiating blind the moment an offer comes in.
The Approval Step That Isn't in Most Purchase Agreements
Membership at Querencia is subject to club approval on every listing that references it. That single condition changes the shape of a Querencia closing compared to a straightforward change of title.
A buyer and seller can agree on a purchase price, a closing date and a transfer fee, and the club can still take weeks to process the membership application behind the scenes. If nobody has flagged that timeline early, it becomes a scheduling problem discovered at the worst possible moment, days before the closing date both parties already told their banks and moving companies.
The transfer fee itself is not published anywhere as a fixed number. It shows up deal by deal, sometimes covered by the buyer as a condition of the sale, sometimes negotiated as a credit against the purchase price. A seller who waits until an offer lands to figure out who pays it is negotiating a term that should have been decided before the property ever went live.
| Cost category | Who typically pays | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|
| HOA dues (~$1,200+/month) | Owner, ongoing | Community-wide, not negotiable at sale |
| Club initiation fee ($50,000 to $100,000) | New member, if joining fresh | Set by the club, not published as fixed |
| Annual club dues ($15,000 to $25,000) | Member, ongoing | Set by the club, varies by category |
| Membership transfer fee | Negotiated buyer/seller | Deal-specific, confirmed with club before listing |
Why the Dollar Amounts Behind This Are Getting Bigger
The reason this is worth sorting out before a Querencia home goes on the market, rather than after an offer arrives, comes down to where prices in this corridor have moved. Market analysis covering the San José Corridor, which includes Palmilla, Querencia and Chileno, put the average home price at roughly $4.2 million in 2024. By 2025, that average had climbed to roughly $5.88 million, close to a 40 percent jump in a single year.
At those price points, a membership transfer fee that might have been a rounding error on a smaller purchase becomes a real number in a negotiation. So does an ISR miscalculation. A seller who has not lined up documentation before listing is exposing a meaningfully larger sum to a process that punishes disorganization.
The Peso Ledger Underneath the Club Question
None of the club-membership mechanics change the separate tax math every Querencia seller faces regardless of membership status. Mexico taxes the gain on a property sale through ISR, calculated by the closing notario using whichever of two methods produces a lower bill: a flat 25 percent of the gross sale price with no deductions allowed, or up to 35 percent of the net gain once documented costs are subtracted.
That second method only works if the paperwork exists. Deductions require facturas, official invoices issued in the title holder's name and tied to the specific property, covering the original acquisition cost and any capital improvements made since. A kitchen remodel paid in cash with no invoice does not reduce a seller's taxable gain no matter how much it cost.
The math itself happens in pesos, not dollars, even when the listing price and the conversation with a buyer are both in dollars. Exchange rate movement between the date of original purchase and the date of closing can shift the calculated gain in ways that have nothing to do with the sale price both parties agreed on. A seller who has not run this calculation with a notario or accountant before listing is guessing at their own net proceeds.
Primary residence exemptions exist under Mexican tax law, but they require the seller to hold Mexican tax residency and to not have claimed the same exemption within a defined prior period. Most Querencia owners selling a second home or investment property will not qualify, which makes the deduction-based calculation the one worth preparing for well before a buyer is at the table.
Before You List
A Querencia seller who wants a closing timeline that holds should have answers to the following before the property goes to market, not after an offer arrives.
- Confirm in writing with the club whether the current membership is vertical, what category it falls under, and whether it is in good standing.
- Ask the club directly what its current approval process and typical timeline look like for a membership transfer tied to a property sale.
- Decide, before listing, whether the membership transfer fee will be seller-covered, buyer-covered, or negotiated case by case, and say so in the listing itself.
- Confirm predial (annual property tax) is current, since unpaid property tax can hold up a title transfer regardless of any club-side issue.
- Gather every factura tied to the property's original purchase and any capital improvements, and confirm with a notario or accountant which of the two ISR calculation methods is likely to apply.
- Confirm CFE utility accounts and any fideicomiso paperwork are in the seller's name, not left over from a prior owner or listed under the bank trust, since documentation gaps here are a common reason notaries deny exemptions.
None of these steps require the club approval process and the tax calculation to happen at the same time, but they do need to happen on a timeline that ends before a buyer's offer is on the table, not during the weeks after it.
FAQ
Does every Querencia home come with a transferable club membership? No. Some resale listings show membership bundled with the home subject to a transfer fee. Others show membership available separately, priced apart from the property. This varies property by property and should be confirmed with the club directly, not assumed from a comparable listing.
Who decides who pays the membership transfer fee, the buyer or the seller? There is no published standard fee or default split. It is negotiated on a deal-by-deal basis, which is exactly why sellers benefit from deciding their position before listing rather than reacting once an offer includes a request on this point.
Is the club membership transfer fee separate from Mexico's property transfer tax (ISAI)? Yes. ISAI is a state and municipal acquisition tax tied to the property's title transfer and is typically a buyer cost. The club membership transfer fee is an entirely separate payment to the Querencia Club and follows the club's own approval process, not government tax rules.
Can a seller speed up club membership approval to protect a closing date? The club controls its own review timeline, but sellers who initiate the conversation with the club as soon as they decide to list, rather than after an offer arrives, give that process the most runway to finish before a closing date is locked in.
Selling in Querencia means managing two separate approval chains at once, one running through the club and one running through the notario, and the sellers who come out ahead are the ones who start both conversations before a buyer is involved rather than after. If you're weighing a listing in Querencia and want a clear read on your own membership status and net proceeds before you put a price on the door, Jorge Gómez can help you map both timelines out. Let's Connect.
