A market that has continued to increase its pace of demand and construction has been Tijuana, which closed the first quarter of 2022 with 130 thousand square meters of gross absorption, driven by the low vacancy that is close to 0.6%, the lowest at the national level and that shares with markets like Tecate y Ciudad Juárez.

The growing pace of demand has been accompanied by a strong boost in construction that positions Tijuana as the fourth entity with the highest activity at the end of 1Q 2022, where 372 thousand square meters of industrial buildings are advancing, although this offer fails to satisfy the growing demand.

See also: Availability of industrial spaces in Tijuana

The transactions have been carried out mainly in the industrial submarket of El Florido-Boulevard 2000, with 46% of the absorption, because this is one of the areas of the city that still has land available for the detonation of new industrial projects, followed by the Otay-Alamar submarket, which concentrated 25% of the demand.

The demand in this period has been driven by pre-leased speculative projects, buildings that have been starting work in recent months, as a response by market developers to the almost zero market supply and that manage to capture the tenant even in full construction start process.

Companies such as Prologis, Meor, Grupo Cadena, Via Capital, among others are part of the developers that reported pre-leasing activity in Tijuana and that affect the low availability we observe on the projects that are advancing construction.

Proof of this is that of the total warehouses that are under construction, only 34% of the space in the buildings is available for lease, where the range of sizes goes from 7.5 thousand to 39.7 thousand square meters, although with very few options.

Of interest: The lowest vacancy at the national level is concentrated in Baja California

This circumstance ends up significantly affecting rental prices, which are currently at the same level as in Mexico City, reaching $6.00 dollars per square meter when only a year ago they registered an average rent of $4.9 dollars per square meter. monthly square meter.

What is interesting about the region's progress is underpinned by the commitment established by the Baja California authorities to provide legal certainty to companies that wish to expand or install manufacturing projects in the state.

Examples such as the recent investment announced by Vesta for 107 million dollars with the construction of six buildings with an approximate extension of 93 thousand square meters to be developed in the south of the municipality of Tijuana, they seek to close the gap between demand and supply with speculative investment, which is one of the ways to balance the industrial market in the medium and long term.