Everyone wants the list. The one with all the cheap abandoned houses on it. Here’s the surprising truth: that list is required to exist by law, it’s public, and hardly anyone knows how to actually get it. Here’s the real first move.

Is there an official list of estorbos públicos?

Yes. Article 4.011 of the Código Municipal requires every one of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities to keep a public inventory of declared estorbos, updated quarterly, with five data points each: location, registral description, catastro number, owner name, and appraised value. It’s supposed to be available at the Casa Alcaldía, on a digital platform, or on a municipal social-media page.

So why can’t I find it online?

Here’s the trap, and it’s also the opportunity: the large majority of the 78 municipalities do not fully comply with publishing it. So the inventory exists on paper but often isn’t sitting on a website. That gap is exactly why so few diaspora buyers ever act on this, and why the ones who do the legwork get there first.

What about the “secret lists” people sell?

The part this post can’t fully give you

Finding the inventory is step one. The full path is reading it, pulling title and CRIM debt on a specific property, confirming the declaration and the pathway, and doing it across a Spanish-only, 78-town system.

Educational only, not legal advice. Confirm current inventory and rules with each municipio.