The cost of living for rent in Colombia is increasing this 2023. On average, for the first three months of the year, an annual variation of 7 percent for houses and 6.7 percent for apartments is recorded, doubling the variations of last year in residential real estate, according to a recent report from the specialized portal ciencuadras.com, which bases its figures on its own data, Economic Studies of Banco Davivienda, La Galería Inmobiliaria and El Libertador.

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Although the variation continues below the maximum allowed for this year -13.12 percent-, some market agents are concerned about the speed with which this cost is approaching that ceiling. In fact, the cost of rents is among the factors that most pressure inflation in Colombia today.

The rise is not only observed in the residential real estate market. The non-residential segment also presents a significant increase, note the report. For example, in offices, it went from a variation of 0.97 percent in February 2022 to 1.51 for the same month in 2023.

Barranquilla leads the list of cities in the country where the value of housing rental fees grows fastest with an annual variation of 7.8 percent when it comes to houses.

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In this same segment it is followed by Medellín, Bogotá and Cartagena with growth rates on this front of 7.5; 7.3 and 7.3 percent per year, all three above the national average. The so-called heroic city leads, in turn, the increase in apartment rental fees, a trend seen since previous months with a rate of 8.2 percent per year, indicates the analysis of the specialized portal.

However, the variation in the cost of residential property leases is far from the data provided by Fedelonjas, which indicate that for the first quarter of the year this value had an average variation of 4.19 percent per year.

and reveals that Medellín is the city in the country with the highest cost per square meter to rent a property to live in stratum three, with an average price of 23,028 pesos, followed by Bogotá (21,255 pesos) and the Caribbean region, where the cost of these fees is around 20,692 pesos on average.

But if what you are looking for is a property to set up a business, according to ciencuadras.com, Cartagena also leads the increases in this type, while Cali stands out as the main city with a variation in rental fees below the average in the category of warehouses.

Purchase prices

Bogotá is the city in the country with the highest concentration of new and used real estate, followed by Medellín and Barranquilla, according to the portal ciencuadras.com

But if you are looking to buy a residential property, know that prices are also rising. The same report from the portal indicates that the average price to acquire a used house increased by 8.33 percent, while in a new one the variation will not change in those first three months of 2023.

But if the option is an apartment, in the used market there was an annual variation of only 0.54 percent, while for brand new that was the variation of 6.33 percent.

«The median sale price of a new apartment from January to March 2022 was 346’19,433 pesos, by the end of the same period of 2023 there was an increase of 39,905,067 pesos. This behavior was presented by the decrease in the supply of new housing, mainly in the VIS segment, which causes prices to increase.To this is added the new supply that is emerging and the trend of country housing on the outskirts of the main cities. For used housing, there is greater stability, with a slight variation in apartment prices of 0.54», the analysis specifies.

He adds that apartments and studio apartments are the most sought after types of properties in the country for purchase both in the new and used housing market, with 68.53 percent of the participation. The demand during the first quarter of 2023 leaned towards apartments, with more than 80 percent of the total searches.

The report also shows a concentration of the supply of new and used properties in Bogotá (27.84 percent), Medellín (25.95 percent) and Barranquilla (13.84 percent). Compared to the first quarter of the previous year, probably the participation of Bogotá and Medellín, while Cali increased its percentage of supply.