Queretaro, Qro. During the period January-September 2021, the office real estate market maintained growth in demand, a rate that slowed down in the fourth quarter of last year, according to studies by the real estate platform Solili.
This behavior means that the state has not yet resumed the level of demand for offices that it presented in the pre-pandemic period, explained the director of Solili Market Research, Pablo López.
“During the year we had had some very good quarters that had been increasing net absorption, that is, what is rented less what is vacated, basically in the first three quarters it began to grow,” he said.
The decrease in the last quarter of the year, he explained, could be related to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly with the spread of the Omicron variant; however, it is not yet possible to determine what was the effect of this variant, since its presence increased in December, just a few weeks before the end of 2021.
The uncertainty that prevails in the office real estate market is limiting the planning of new developments, since investors remain on the lookout.
“Developers have not started construction in anticipation of seeing what happens and there is no demand as such in full recovery. Although it is true that it is already at positive levels and with an upward trend for three quarters of the year, it is already falling again this fourth quarter and it may already be with the effects of Omicron,” said the specialist.
Although there are still challenges to reach the level of employment that the state had before the health emergency, there are elements that improve expectations, because the level of oversupply that prevailed in the square has begun to drop.
Reduce vacancy
While in December 2020 availability was around 22%, for the same month in 2021 it fell to 18.2% (this is the percentage of the market that is unoccupied); this change shows that the disposed surface continues to be absorbed.
“There is a downward trend in vacancy, influenced by issues that what was currently available is being rented, given that construction is trending downward, developers are not generating new projects,” said Pablo López.
Although the effects of the Ómicron variant reduce the office real estate market, he deepened, companies are adapting to hybrid work schemes, maintaining a mix of both remote and face-to-face work systems, a phenomenon that keeps demand active.
According to Solili reports, in Querétaro there is an inventory of 450,000 square meters.
The rental price in the state recovered slightly, 10 cents, from a price of 13.81 dollars per square meter, January 2021, to 13.91 dollars in December.
Office leasing in the country, in the fourth quarter, was 170,000 square meters; Mexico City was the market that contributed the most, contributing a demand of 110,000 square meters.
Querétaro was one of the markets with the smallest participation, after reporting a net absorption of 1,279 square meters and a gross absorption of 2,270 square meters, in the fourth quarter of 2021.
A year ago, in the fourth quarter of 2020, Querétaro registered a demand for only 1,259 square meters in the office market, that is, it represented 80% of the rental area of the pre-pandemic period.
