The Covid-19 pandemic further increased the oversupply of offices that existed in the country's capital. In December 2019, vacancy registered 14.4% and by the end of June 2022 the percentage rose to 22.8%, although currently the slope of vacancy growth has eased, achieving a decrease of 72 basis points during the last year. .

There are several causes that affect the behavior of this indicator, the first has been the gradual recovery of gross demand that, although it has not reached pre-pandemic levels, advances to register at the end of Q2 2022 the amount of 137 thousand square meters, a figure 150% higher than that registered in the same period of 2021.

The second cause has to do with the downward adjustment that unemployment has registered in the capital and that is graphically represented in the performance of net demand that is back on positive ground with 67 thousand square meters, after the setback that had been registered the first quarter of 2022 where vacancies exceeded demand.

Of interest: CDMX 20% from reaching registered corporate absorption prior to the pandemic

The third cause is associated with changes in the use of buildings originally intended for offices and that, due to operational or market obsolescence, would have a new opportunity for another use.

Already in November 2021 Fibra Uno (FUNO) had offices that were transformed into clinics and hospitals, generating the double advantage of occupying these properties and at the same time addressing the lack of health infrastructure that became evident in the pandemic.

Properties such as La Viga in Mexico City, previously occupied by government offices, will now serve medical purposes. Another project such as Plaza Satélite in the State of Mexico is conceptualized for mixed uses with a shopping center, apartments and offices, where this last part will be transformed into a hospital.

Subsequently, on August 4, 2021, the Agreement establishing the guidelines for the Reconversion of Offices to Housing in Mexico City was published in the Official Gazette of Mexico City, seeking to close the gaps in the housing deficit. and the oversupply of offices.

Check here: Inventory of offices in the country grew just over 2% in the last year

With this, the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (Seduvi) planned that at least 50 office buildings be converted to apartments in the coming months, for which facilities will be granted for the change of land use of the buildings. The challenge required that the capacities of the current water, drainage and electricity services allow progress in the reconversion.

Under the regulations of not authorizing total demolitions and with the possibility of conserving up to 40% of the net area for office use, these reconversion guidelines in force until the end of 2024 will make it easier for corridors such as Insurgentes, Reforma and Polanco, which together make up the 46% of the current vacancy can direct part of it to other conforming uses that allow in the next two and a half years to occupy part of the corporate vacancy that the country's capital still maintains.