The health crisis caused by COVID-19 had a negative impact on the corporate real estate market in Mexico City during the last quarter of 2020, since there was only a 3 percent increase in inventory, a rate lower than that registered in previous years.

According to an analysis by the Solili platform, at the end of 4Q 2020, vacant spaces in the capital increased by 40 percent, when compared to the same period in 2019.

The corridors with the greatest availability of office space are: Insurgentes, Polanco and Reforma.

For example, in Polanco, until December 2020, this corridor with 330,327 average square meters vacant at a monthly rental price of 24.01 pesos per square meter.

Check here the offer of spaces available in Polanco, Insurgentes and Reforma.

The lessees continue to make downward modifications in the starting prices and with changes in the type of currency in which the contract is closed, it is now more common to sign contracts in Mexican pesos, which was previously in US dollars.

In order to make office rental more attractive and incentivize leasing, corporate space marketers have launched campaigns with special discounts on the rental price, lower maintenance prices, contracts with shorter lease periods, the supply of furnished offices, among other adjustments.

During the quarter, the construction of 14.5 thousand m² was completed, while the construction of a little more than 6 thousand m² began in projects that were had as planned, such as Work Lab Condesa.

Demand continued with 4Q 2020, impacted by unemployment, since at the end of the quarter the net demand registered a negative absorption of 121 thousand m², while the gross demand reached a figure of 84 thousand m². Small spaces have been the ones with the highest demand, on average 500 m² on the Polanco, Bosques, Santa Fe and Insurgentes corridors.

A trend already marked in previous periods is the development of mixed uses called "micro-cities of the future", which will continue to set the tone in new designs and projections, considering the use of the highest floors for residential areas, medium floors for offices and ground floors for commercial use.

Developers face big challenges this year, from building smart and safe spaces for each of the occupants, where coworking spaces will be more sought after and some owners are expected to incorporate these coworking spaces as a new business model.