Attorney Raudiel Peña Barrios, a member of the legal team at Cubalex, issued a strong warning about the real implications of the new General Housing Law that came into effect on October 21, 2026: although the law eliminates automatic confiscation upon emigrating, the Cuban political system has never recognized the law as a legitimate constraint on the power of the State.
"With the previous immigration law, they could prevent you from entering the country or leaving it. The same applies to the current one. With the previous law, they could take away your home. The same applies to the current one," Peña Barrios stated in an interview with Tania Costa. His conclusion was straightforward: "The law is not a limit to power in Cuba."
, approved by the National Assembly on July 30 and published in the Official Gazette on October 14, replaces the housing legislation of 1988 and eliminates the automatic loss of property due to permanent departure from the country, a mechanism rooted in Law No. 989 of 1961, which mandated the confiscation of the assets of those who left Cuba.
However, the new regulation imposes a key obligation. The owner who emigrates must designate a legal representative in Cuba to manage the property before courts and administrative authorities. An unoccupied property without a representative is exposed to a process of expropriation for abandonment.
The interviewer, Tania Costa, commented that the law, at its core, formalizes a practice that has always existed. “In practice, this is already being done. What is happening now is formalizing something that has always been done,” she said. Attorney Raudiel Peña remarked that his recommendation is clear: “I reiterate the recommendation for a notarial process because clear rules are always better.”
The lawyer explained that notarization is not a bureaucratic whim but a practical necessity. If several family members claim verbally to have been designated—the son, the aunt, the spouse—a conflict is bound to arise. "If you leave and there is a legal representative, a conflict may eventually arise in which multiple legal representatives appear. Then it's not just that my son told me that I was in charge of the house and then the aunt shows up," he warned.
But notarization does not guarantee complete protection either. Peña Barrios was explicit: "Since the law is not a limit, one can create any legal bubble or legal formality to take away the house."
The most vulnerable group in this scenario is the opponents who have gone into exile and cannot return to Cuba. For them, the new law offers a theoretical protection that is almost unworkable in practice. "Who would want to be a legal representative of someone who is publicly known and involved in opposing the regime?" asked Peña Barrios.
Cubalex has documented that the Cuban state uses criminal and administrative processes to appropriate properties from opponents and activists. The new housing law does not have retroactive effect and does not return properties confiscated in previous decades, thus failing to address the property claims accumulated by generations of exiles.
“In Cuba, nothing has been easy. Nothing will ever be easy,” concluded the lawyer.
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