Building a house in Guatemala, adding to it, remodelling it or demolishing it goes through a permit (licencia de construcción) from the municipality where the land is. Each municipality sets its own rates: the Concejo Municipal of Guatemala City, for example, does it by acuerdo, on the basis of municipal autonomy and its authority over territorial planning in its jurisdiction. This page uses the acuerdos the Municipalidad de Guatemala publishes on its website, read on 7 October 2026. If your land is in another municipality, the rates and amounts can be different.

The Municipalidad de Guatemala advises anyone buying into a real-estate project to check first that it has all its municipal and government authorisations and licences (notice published 22 April 2025).

Quick summary: In the municipality of Guatemala, a housing permit costs 2% to 4.5% of a reference construction cost per m² set by Acuerdo COM-012-04 (Q500 to Q2,000 per m² depending on house size). A 150 m² house pays Q5,400. The first permit lasts up to two years; the first renewal costs 50% of what you paid and later renewals 25%. Files are centralised at the Ventanilla Unica (Acuerdo COM-043-08). None of Acuerdo COM-012-04, articles 1, 2, 3 and 6 of COM-043-08, or articles 1 and 3 of COM-03-2025 gives a list of requirements or a processing deadline.

Check our exchange rate page for today’s USD/GTQ rate.

Who issues the permit in Guatemala City

  • Departamento de Control de la Construcción Urbana, or the office that takes its place: article 2 of Acuerdo COM-012-04 tasks it with applying the cost table, doing the calculation and issuing the permits.
  • Ventanilla Unica: created by Acuerdo COM-043-08 of the Concejo Municipal, dated 15 December 2008, to centralise and speed up the permit and authorisation files of that department. The acuerdo ties it to the Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial the Concejo approved on 13 October 2008.
  • Dirección de Control Territorial: the office named in Acuerdo COM-03-2025, which temporarily (for six months) allowed it to issue building permits for excavations with slope-protection systems, provided the file met all applicable technical and legal requirements.

What it costs: the Acuerdo COM-012-04 table

Acuerdo COM-012-04 (dated 19 May 2004) works in two steps: it assigns a construction cost per m² by type of work, then applies a rate (percentage) to that amount. Permit = m² × cost per m² × rate. These are the housing rows:

Type of housingCost per m²RateExample
Social-interest housing (Residencial Tipo I)No cost0%Q0
Up to 60 m² (Tipo II)Q5002%50 m²: Q500
61 to 100 m² (Tipo II)Q7003%90 m²: Q1,890
101 to 200 m² (Tipo III)Q1,2003%150 m²: Q5,400
201 to 300 m² (Tipo III)Q1,5004.5%250 m²: Q16,875
301 to 400 m² (Tipo III)Q1,7504.5%350 m²: Q27,562.50
Over 400 m² (Tipo III)Q2,0004.5%450 m²: Q40,500

Source: Acuerdo COM-012-04, cost table (page 3) and rate table (page 5), in the PDF published by the Municipalidad de Guatemala; the example column is our calculation using the acuerdo’s formula.

Other rows of the same acuerdo that can apply to housing work:

  • Demolition: Q50 per m², 4.5% rate.
  • Excavation or earth moving: Q50 per m³, 4.5% rate.
  • Remodelling: 50% of the cost per m² for the type of building concerned, at a 4.5% rate.
  • The acuerdo also has rows for specific works such as brick or block walls, sheet-metal or concrete roofs, cisterns, swimming pools and gates for guard posts.

Article 3 of the acuerdo says files already in process when it took effect are governed by the table in force when they were filed. The acuerdo dates from 2004; before you budget, confirm at the Ventanilla Unica that it is still the table being applied.

Term and renewals

Article 6 of Acuerdo COM-012-04 sets the term of the permit and the cost of renewing it:

PermitTermCost
First permitUp to 2 yearsPer the table above
First renewalUp to 1 year50% of what was paid for the first permit
Second and later renewalsAnnual25% of what was paid for the first permit

For the 150 m² house in the example (a Q5,400 permit), the first renewal would cost Q2,700 and each later renewal Q1,350.

Requirements

None of Acuerdo COM-012-04, articles 1, 2, 3 and 6 of COM-043-08, or articles 1 and 3 of COM-03-2025 includes a document list; COM-03-2025 only requires the file to meet all applicable technical and legal requirements. Ask the Ventanilla Unica for the current list before you commission plans.

Details

In the municipality of Guatemala, the first permit runs for up to two years and can be renewed: the first renewal covers up to one year and costs 50% of what you paid for the permit; the second and later renewals are annual and cost 25% (Acuerdo COM-012-04, article 6). The acuerdo does not say how far ahead you must apply for the renewal; ask at the Ventanilla Unica.

Details

The Asociación Guatemalteca de Ingeniería Estructural y Sísmica (AGIES) publishes the Normas de Seguridad Estructural. According to AGIES, when it published them in 2010, CONRED adopted them as part of disaster-reduction standard NRD-1, which made their use mandatory; the 2018 edition has 14 standards. AGIES traces the first draft standards back to the need exposed by the 1976 earthquake.

  • Acuerdo COM-012-04 of the Concejo Municipal of Guatemala City: table of costs per m² and construction permit rates, term and renewals.
  • Acuerdo COM-043-08: creation of the Ventanilla Unica.
  • Acuerdo COM-03-2025: temporary power (six months) for the Dirección de Control Territorial to issue building permits for excavations with slope protection.
  • Código Municipal, Decreto 12-2002 (text as published in the Diario de Centro América on 13 May 2002): articles 143 to 147 deal with territorial planning; article 146 requires written municipal authorisation to build beside highways, and article 147 governs the municipal urbanisation licence.
  • CONRED standards: NRD-1 (structural safety of buildings and infrastructure), NRD-2 (minimum safety in public-use buildings and installations: evacuation routes and emergency exits), NRD-3 (technical specifications for construction materials). NRD-4 covers socio-organisational events, not buildings (CONRED, read 7 October 2026). CONRED says its evaluation and NRD-application procedures are free.
  • AGIES Normas de Seguridad Estructural: according to AGIES, CONRED adopted them as part of NRD-1 when they were published in 2010; the edition AGIES describes on that page is NSE 2018, with 14 standards.