Havana property boom only for Cubans, for now

Havana

A FEW hours and a mojito or two after arriving in this 500-year-old city, with its ocean vistas and dazzling architecture, American visitors often ask: Can I buy a piece of this?

They cannot. The Cuban government doesn't allow it. The US government doesn't allow it. Not yet, at least.

But with the two countries moving to restore diplomatic relations and end decades of estrangement, it is not difficult to imagine a day when pent-up global market forces will wash over this city's sagging buildings and mansions in distress. Cubans are already angling to get ahead of the flood.

Three years after Raul Castro cast aside decades of communist housing dogma and allowed homeowners to buy and sell their properties for the first tim…