The most recent figures on the new housing market in the countryrevealed by the Colombian Chamber of Construction (Camacol), show that sales are still unable to overcome the bad moment they are going through.
The sale of new housing during the first half of 2023 was 64,266 units, a drop of 53.3 percent compared to the 137,531 sold in the same period of 2022.
(Also read: Home sales: these are the problems that will prolong the crisis in the sector)
These falls are explained by adverse macroeconomic conditions at a global level
This contraction was marked by the 56.5 percent reduction achieved in the sales of Social Interest Housing (VIS).
However, Camacol assures that, despite the recent trend in sales, there are positive signs for home buying in the medium term in Colombia.
“These falls are explained by adverse macroeconomic conditions globally and increases in interest rates to reduce the effects of inflation“, said the president of Camacol, Guillermo Herrera.
(Also read: Camacol’s proposals to raise housing sales figures in Colombia)
Homes that today include off-plans would benefit from better rates
To this is added a housing policy that has been slow to respond to the current situation. However, it is expected that inflation will continue to slow down, which will gradually allow the reduction in interest rates for home purchases, and thus ease the financial burden on households that you will be able to access credits with lower installments.
“By the second half of 2024, Mortgage rates could return to average levels. In this way, households that today include off-plans would benefit from better rates at the time of delivery of their home,” Herrera said.
The budget addition, which injects resources into the Program My House Now It represents a very important advance for the program to be able to catch up on its payments and, in this way, households can receive their homes.
(Read also: Improve the environment for the housing and construction sector in Bogotá: Camacol)
But most of these resources are committed to the delivery of nearly 57,000 homes already completed. In this regard, the president of Camacol modified that “the counter-cyclical drive requires additional resources focused on starting new projectswhich will activate the productive chains of the sector and will stimulate the generation of employment in the construction of buildings”.
According to figures from the Camacol building census, through Coordenada Urbana, currently 107,339 social interest homes are in projects with more than 70 percent of the marketed offer.
These are units that can be started in the short term, boosting close to 200,000 jobs and reactivating intermediate demand. In this regard, the chained industries are already feeling the effects of the slowdown in the dynamics of buildings, particularly in micro-businesses associated with hardware stores, rubber and wood production.
