2022 has represented a significant challenge for a real estate market that, although it has not managed to recover the levels of gross demand that it had generated in the period prior to the pandemic.

However, if we measure the progress compared to 2021, the figures show a sustained recovery with the increase that this indicator presented in 2022, where Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara grew by 99%, 38% and 29%, with respect to the previous year. same period of the previous year.

In turn, vacancies have been slowly adjusting downwards in almost all markets nationwide. Monterrey, Querétaro, Tijuana and Guadalajara present the largest contractions of 5.6, 3.6, 3.2 and 3 percentage points, between November 2022 and 2021.

Of interest: 2023 will continue the recovery of demand for offices in Mexico

More than a third of the corporate demand in Q3 2022 at the national level was located in offices from one thousand to 5 thousand square meters and there has been a significant boom in mixed-use projects, a trend that was reinforced as a result of the pandemic, mainly in cities like Monterrey, Guadalajara and Mérida.

In turn, one million three hundred thousand square meters of corporate projects nationwide are still under construction, 62% of which are concentrated in the country's capital. 

Constructions in progress have been decreasing in 2022 and being incorporated into inventories in each market, which, however, has not had a noticeable impact on vacancy.

Therefore, it is likely that at the beginning of 2023, markets such as Monterrey and Querétaro, will be able to cross the vacancy threshold of 15%, just as Guadalajara crossed it in November 2022.

This conjunction of growing demands and vacancies that adjust downward below 12% will activate the need in some markets for the start of new corporate construction. We could go through this scenario in the middle of the year, mainly in very active corridors and with medium-sized buildings that could take advantage of the demand that seeks modern spaces where environmental management is a priority.

Regarding the conversion of spaces, 2023 will also have generated enough time to mature some projects that followed this path, but which will have an even greater challenge in the face of an inflationary scenario.

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Flexibility in corporate leasing will be a constant in the year that has just begun, both on the operational and financial side, where tenants will still maintain their advantages in the negotiation.

The coworking model that has penetrated after the pandemic will also be maintained, as well as the subletting options that we have had in mind in 2022. Without a doubt, we will be facing a more complex year in economic terms that will demand new formulas from developers to adapt their spaces to a changing demand.