One year after the resumption of essential activities in the country, in the city of Monterrey the real estate market for class A offices has shown instability in average prices, vacancies and absorption due to the pandemic; however, during the second quarter of 2021 an improvement was recorded mainly in the gross lease indicator.

Compared to the figure for the first quarter, gross absorption grew 72% where sales prevailed over rent, supported by the opinion of marketers who perceived an upturn in the acquisition of spaces within developments in the construction stage, with the expectation of obtain return on investment within one or two years while controlling the situation due to the health crisis.

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They agree on the opinion about the great change that the implementation of working from home meant, since there is still uncertainty about returning full time to offices or keeping part of the staff working from home; which is why the rent of spaces decreased in the last three months by 37% compared to 1Q 2021.

Regarding the characteristics of the absorption corresponding to 2Q 2021, there was an increase in the average area demanded that reached around 400 m2, preference for conditioning and 13% more closings than last quarter.

The demand for complete floors is maintained along with smaller surfaces on average of 65 m2.

Developments such as Balzac and Centro Cuauhtémoc are the ones that featured the most in relation to the amount of square meters. At the submarket level, Centro stands out with the highest percentage in sales and Santa María in rents.

Construction of 3,570 square meters was completed in the Centro submarket and it is estimated that approximately 7,800 m2 can be delivered by September. Although the start of works on projects with a considerable area was not reported, there are some that are expected to start construction such as Torre Rise or Colonia in the Centro submarket.

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Projects with the rental pool modality have become more attractive, as well as the financing through crowdfunding to carry out any type of real estate project, as in the case of the Catehua development.

Regarding unemployment, it continued in this second quarter with a maximum during May of about 8 thousand m2 and in June it fell by 11%. The average unoccupied area was 237 m2, where Valle Oriente and Santa María reported the highest figures.

The average price in the market reported an increase of 0.8% from May to June and 15.7% compared to the value of a year ago. Especially the Santa María submarket had the highest percentage of increase in a month due to properties that offer conditioned offices.

As of February 2021, the rise in the value of prices began, which has been conserved until June. The city ranks fifth nationally below Mérida, Tijuana, Guadalajara and Mexico City.