The legal reality for foreigners
Cuba's 2011 housing reforms opened home buying and selling to citizens and permanent residents, but this is a domestic market centred on towns and cities. Foreigners without permanent residency generally cannot acquire residential property freely, and a designated resort cay is among the least likely places to find any private title at all. Where coastal real estate has been developed with foreign participation, it happens through state-led joint ventures and investment vehicles such as Ley 118, aimed at companies and structured projects, not individual holidaymakers. US persons must additionally consider OFAC rules and the Helms-Burton Act, which restrict certain transactions involving Cuban property.
Why the cays specifically are off-limits to buyers
A resort cay is not a settlement. Cayo Santa Maria and its neighbours were built as tourism infrastructure: hotels, service buildings, roads and utilities, connected to the mainland by a causeway. There is no local council of private homeowners, no established residential streets, and therefore nothing resembling a condo market. Land and major facilities sit within the state tourism framework. Even Cubans do not buy homes on these cays, because they are not residential zones. Anyone advertising cay property to foreigners is, at best, misunderstanding how these places work.
The pathways that do exist
If your goal is to spend serious time in Cuba, the recognised routes are residency (including through family ties), marriage to a Cuban citizen, inheritance of property, and long-term rental of a home on the mainland. These involve Cuban immigration and legal processes and take time. Business investors work within the Ley 118 framework and negotiate directly with the state. None of these routes ends in owning a resort condo on Cayo Santa Maria. Understanding this early lets you plan the trip that is actually available: a stay, not a sale.
What visitors do instead
Overwhelmingly, people come to the Villa Clara cays to stay a while and enjoy the beaches. That means booking an all-inclusive resort on the cay, or lodging in a casa particular in Remedios or Caibarian on the mainland and driving over the causeway for the day. This gives you the sand and sea without any property entanglement, and it keeps your visit firmly within the rules. It is the honest, workable version of the dream that sends people searching for cay real estate in the first place.