Spanish hotel chain Sol Meliã has announced it’s ready to offer timeshare in Cuba. This will be the first timeshare opportunity available on the island when the Cuban government gives the go-ahead for this type of holiday accommodation.

Melia Cuba which runs 25 hotels and resorts in Cuba, along with Cuban hotel partners, will open Meliã Marina Varadero in Punta Hicacos in Cuba’s prime vacation spot. The Meliã Marina Varadero’s Facebook page announces that the complex will offer timeshare.

Some 126 one- and two-bedroomed apartments will open as part of a larger Meliã Marina Varadero hotel property in summer 2013 but these apartments, contained within the hotel complex, are prepped for timeshare.

Sol Meliã’s Director of Communication in Cuba said the plan is “with time” to create timeshare via Sol Meliã’s timeshare model: https://clubmelia.com/resorts/

Of course, the crux is, “with time”. The government amended the law in 2010 on foreign ownership of property allowing for leases to be granted for 99 years. Barring a short-lived experiment in Havana with sales of condos to foreigners in the late 90s, this change in the law meant it would only be the second time in 54 years that non-permanent foreign residents could buy property in Cuba.

Nobody is holding their breath, though. None of the 10 or so golf and condo projects, heralded as the first opportunities for foreigners to purchase property in Cuba, have broken ground. In fact, there’s been no news updates on these projects for quite some time.