Home Feature Yucatán will have to regulate vertical real estate growth: AMPI

Yucatán will have to regulate vertical real estate growth: AMPI

by Yucatan Times
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Due to the migration of people the industry recommends vertical building.

Mérida, Yucatán, (May 17, 2021).- “For approximately 15 years, Yucatán became the desired state to live in, either for security and its geographical characteristics or for the legal certainty in the procedures to invest. Currently, Mérida tends to grow vertically, with buildings of more than 3 levels, so regulation is necessary in this regard”, declared the president of the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals (AMPI) in Mérida, Gabriela Chavarría Román.  

Chavarría Roman emphasizes that it must improve or regulate the regulations for vertical constructions, for example, review the construction regulations, “we should not accept that developers in a five-story vertical do not have wind impact studies, because they have to use other types of materials to build ”.

Also, work with issues such as what type and thickness of aluminum must be used in constructions like this, because the state is a hurricane zone. As well as integrating housing insurance as an obligation, which includes protection for third parties, said the representative of the association.

She underlined the need to clarify the information on what a condominium real estate development should integrate, not only for the interior of the construction but also for the exterior, streets that connect with the development of public lighting on the surroundings, for example.

Due to the migration of people from other states of the republic, the real estate industry in Yucatan recommends growing upwards, vertically with multi-story buildings and not horizontally, like the constructions of housing complexes of yesteryear. The first vertical buildings in Mérida that reinforced the idea were the Country Towers in 2012. 

“There is no other option than to go vertical, there are mixed-use housing towers. It has taken us a while to assimilate it because we were used to our horizontal housing and in the last 10 years we have seen an exponential growth”, declared Chavarría Román.

The director of the association warns that if it continues to grow horizontally, the city of Mérida would directly adjoin Progreso. 

In the last 10 years, Mérida has considerably increased its number of inhabitants. “In 2010, the city had approximately 700 thousand inhabitants, 2020 closed with 990 thousand inhabitants, that is an increase of almost 40 percent of the population,” she continued.

Now, the population that acquires houses is between 25 and 45 years old, approximately, and they have different needs from those who used to move here a few years ago, “before you could maintain a house of 500 square meters with the gardener, the maid, the nanny, and that is not the case today. The economy has changed, we need to have the same comfort, and a home that can be maintained ”, she added.

The real estate expert stressed that now the main thing for the young population is to travel “they want to know, their priority is not to save for old age, needs change. Today young people need rooms of four by five meters, they do not need a large house now”, she pointed out.

“Physical activity is also among their priorities, having amenities within the same building, such as a gym and green areas, are a requirement for young people these days”, she mentioned.

“There are also elderly people who also like small spaces, such as apartments because they live alone, and have no children.” The new real estate demand calls for compact places with unexpensive maintenance.

In addition, there are areas of real estate speculation in certain parts of the state, such as Valladolid, where the land is getting more and more expensive”, she said.

Why Mérida? 

For the president of the association, the first attraction for the real estate purchase is that “unlike the Mexican Republic, there are states that have worked a lot on its planning and on public legislation, not all have done so with success.”

Yucatán has invested in technology to organize the government institutions that manage the territorial expansion so that they can function comprehensively.

“The Yucatecan population has also been key to development, society is very participatory, and being so it is also demanding in what they want. It is a society that informs itself and occupies the support of the government. That is, if we see a bump, we ask that it must be repaired. That allows us to demand from our government representatives and that generates a standard of compliance,” stated the president of AMPI.

She underlined that the desirability of Merida’s real estate is also based on the fact that it is a safe city with smart traffic lights, security cameras, access to hospitals, schools. Merida also has a high hospital level, with state-of-the-art equipment.

“This translates to a city of high socioeconomic well-being and this is the first point of why many people are turning to look at the Yucatán and, in particular, Mérida”  

Currently, the real estate sector occupies the third place of economic spillover in the state, compared to other sectors of the economy. 

From the Historic Center to the north 

The city’s real estate desirability began with the Historic Center, the second largest in the country at 90 blocks. The transformation of the facades of the area was part of its growth in 2000, and in 2005 there was already a foreign community with more members, mostly Americans, later Canadians, Spanish, Germans, French, etc. living in Mérida’s Centro. 

“Foreigners value living in a place with culture and the center of Mérida has a very broad culture. You have gastronomy, sculpture, architecture, there is a symphony that very few places have, museums, art galleries, theaters ”.

Chavarría Román stressed that Mérida, despite continuing with its development, has not lost its folklore and everyday life with the warmth of its citizens, which makes it an attractive place to live.  

Between 2005 and 2010, Yucatán changes real estate clients. It began to receive universities such as the University of the Valley of Mexico (UVM) and there was a housing need to cover.

“We began to see that many of the large houses (in areas like El Campestre) allowed renting the rooms that used to belong to their children and became lodging houses for university students.” Little by little the space for the students was insufficient and the demand for vertical housing, buildings of three to five levels, strengthened.

“At the same time, the phenomenon of insecurity and crime in the rest of the country caused a strong migration to Yucatán. Inhabitants of Villahermosa, Monterrey, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Morelia, and Querétaro turned to see Mérida as a safe place to live,” she added.

“The insecurity factor created a demand for houses in closed reserves,” she continued.

The housing demand also triggered the construction of shopping malls, hospitals, schools, and recreational centers for the area. 

“We needed to give them the services they were demanding, such as the services that exist in cities like Guadalajara because they are large metropolises. This required Mérida to advance by leaps and bounds to build.”

The AMPI president acknowledged that the local real estate industry was not prepared for this growth, but responded to requests by proposing vertical construction.

“Given this demand, we cannot continue expanding horizontally because there is a delimited land to continue growing, Gabriela Chavarría Román concluded.

Source: La Jornada Maya

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