The apartments with the highest prices in the real estate market are Montevideo and Caneloneswhich in turn are the ones with the highest population concentration, and then Maldonado comesthe department that has been able to attract tourists and inhabitants of a higher socioeconomic level.
The average price of The rents for these apartments are $18,547, $17,124, and $16,318 per month (respectively).according to the latest report from the National Statistics Institute (INE), published last week and corresponding to the month of September 2022.
The rest of the departments of Uruguay concentrate a cost of rentals that detaches from those three.
Nevertheless, Peach —the geographic heart of the country— has been accumulating an increase in the costs of its real estate in recent years, particularly in the area of rentals.
In fact (and according to that same INE report), Peach presents an average of costs that in September averaged $ 15,866. The department that follows (and closes the top five) is Río Negro, with $13,644. With very similar figuresthen Florida ($13,640), Flores ($13,431), Soriano ($13,388) and Salto ($13,335) are positioned.
“The real estate market has exploded in Durazno in recent years”said Sebastián Eroisi, founder of Centro Inmobiliaria —a company that operates in Durazno—, to Coffee & Business.
Eroisi explained that this phenomenon is due to the geographical location of the department, which has led to the installation of some companies, such as refrigerators. However, the installation that substantially moved the needle was the one of the second plant of the UPM pulp mill. Although it is located in Paso de los Toros (Tacuarembó), the distance between that place and the city of Durazno (70 kilometers) is practically half that which separates it from the center of Tacuarembó (140 kilometers). Also, Durazno is closer to Montevideo.
It is estimated that the pulp mill is generating approximately 10 thousand new jobs between direct and indirect. “Many families from other parts of the country have come to work in Durazno and have settled in the department, they even bought land and built houses,” added Eroisi.
According to the businessman, there were rentals that increased in value about four or five times in recent times, although he clarified that this phenomenon is particularly temporary, since they were one-year contracts negotiated by foreign professionals linked to the plant. These properties, which normally had a rent of US$1,000, began to be worth between US$4,000 and US$5,000 for a determined period of time.
UPM
UPM pulp mill, in Paso de los Toros
For Eroisi, the dynamism in the Peach real estate sector is not going to come to a standstill in the short term when UPM’s manufacturing is completed, although he does estimate that the high-rent niche will decrease in the short term.
According to data provided by the real estate portal InfoCasas, inquiries for properties in Durazno have increased by 70% since the arrival of UPM. The main interest of customers is focused on the home rentals.
Also, there was a rental growth greater than 50%: “A house that used to be around $20,000 per month, today can reach US$45”, they exemplified from the platform.
Unlike the local businessman, from InfoCasas they were not so optimistic regarding the dynamism that exists in the field of real estate in that department.
Along these lines, they explained that they foresee a drop in queries for the first quarter of 2023 for the “Durazno” and “Tacuarembó” location filters of the platform, an effect that they called “posUPM”. They even project a lower rental cost for when the pastry finishes its works. Units whose rents are at US$ 1,500 today they can go down to half that costthey defined.
