Short answer. Yes. Article 1643 of the Civil Code sets a ceiling: no lease for more than ninety-nine years shall be valid. A lease may run for a definite or indefinite period, but it cannot lawfully exceed ninety-nine years, and any term written to run beyond that outer limit will not be recognised for the excess.
What the law says
no lease for more than ninety-nine years shall be valid.
Civil Code, Article 1643 — Lease of Things, and the Ninety-Nine-Year Ceiling. Read the full provision →
The ninety-nine-year ceiling
Article 1643 defines the lease of things and then fixes an outer limit. It says that in such a lease one of the parties binds himself to give to another the enjoyment or use of a thing for a price certain, and for a period which may be definite or indefinite. It then adds the hard rule: However, no lease for more than ninety-nine years shall be valid. Parties are free to agree on a term, but the law will not recognise one that runs beyond ninety-nine years.
Definite or indefinite, within the limit
The article allows flexibility on duration. A lease may state a fixed number of years, or it may be left indefinite, subject to the rules that govern how such leases end. What the law does not allow is a term exceeding the ceiling. The ninety-nine-year cap is the ceiling on validity, so an attempt to lock a property up for longer collides directly with the statute and cannot stand as written. Where a contract fixes a longer stretch, the arrangement does not wholly collapse, but the portion beyond the statutory maximum is what the law refuses to enforce, so neither party can insist on holding the other to the excess years.
What the rule does not settle
This provision fixes a maximum length; it does not, on its own, resolve every other question about a lease — the rights and obligations of lessor and lessee, renewals, or the special limits that other laws place on leases involving certain kinds of land or certain lessees. Those are governed by separate rules. If your agreement pushes toward a very long term, or stacks renewals to approach or pass the limit, have it reviewed before signing, since a term the law treats as excessive can unsettle the arrangement you were counting on. The ceiling binds both lessor and lessee alike; neither can waive it by agreement, because a limit set for public policy reasons is not something private parties may contract around. Other statutes cap certain leases far below this figure, so the rule here is only an outer maximum.