At the end of the month of May 2023, the industrial vacancy levels at the national level in Mexican territory are once again adjusted downwards in most markets.

In absolute terms, the markets that concentrate the largest amounts of industrial inventory, such as Mexico City and  Monterrey, have 285 and 154 thousand square meters of vacant buildings, which in percentage terms represent 1.6% and 1%, respectively.

Of interest: Strategic location and qualified workforce attract automotive investments to Saltillo

Also the Bajío region, the markets of Querétaro and Guanajuato register percentages vacancy of 2.5% and 3.5%, respectively, being one of the highest at the national level, according to the real estate platform Solili in its report to May 2023.

If we take into account that these percentages represent the average in each market, it is very probable that the most dynamic brokers in each one of them register lower percentages than the average, which could further aggravate the availability of industrial space.

Already in the last two quarters of 2022, several industrial markets had reached significant construction figures where a significant presence of speculative warehouses was observed, which at a certain time allowed many markets to slightly reverse the decline in vacancies.

Markets such as Monterrey, Saltillo, Tijuana, Guanajuato and Ciudad Juárez have maintained the increase in construction in recent months, while markets such as Mexico City and Querétaro registered a higher number of settlements compared to the projects that start, which is the reason for the decrease of the constructions in progress.

In the same way, at the end of 2022 there was a higher proportion in general terms of speculative projects that were commercialized before finishing construction, so they entered the inventory busy, leaving custom-made projects underway that, due to their large dimensions, are still under construction.

Check here: Guanajuato reactivates industrial construction due to growing demand

These circumstances allow various industrial markets to currently record a greater share of custom-made projects, the exception being the markets of Mexico City and Tijuana, which are advancing mainly with speculative projects.

If we review the cycles that the Mexican industrial markets have gone through in the last five years, we can infer that the low levels of vacancy have a direct impact on the contraction of demand that, when it is not satisfied, locates new territories that do achieve the necessary changes in the zoning ordinances towards the creation of new land with industrial vocation. Only markets that anticipate these opportunities will take advantage of the arrival of new investment in the country.