Although in the country there is a crisis in home salesThere is also another side of the coin: Home prices are decreasing in real terms, both in new and used homes..
Although buyers may perceive that the prices they are asked for their properties rise periodically, These positive adjustments are lower than the inflation experienced by Colombia (this figure closed October at 10.46% annually), which results in a reduction in real terms of prices for new housing, as well as a real devaluation of used housing..
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And the fact is that the Banco de la República’s new and used housing price indices show that, at least, It has been 15 months without prices in real terms increasing and, on the contrary, decreasing.
The last month in which prices increased in real terms compared to 12 months ago, according to the index calculated by the Issuer, was July 2022. By then, it did so by 0.1%. This data groups together the behavior of housing prices in the three main cities of the country: Bogotá, Medellín and Calias well as the surroundings of the capital of the Republic.
According to Banrep reports, the situation experienced in the surroundings of Bogotá is the one with the greatest reduction in prices. In September 2023, for example, the annual drop in housing prices in this sector registered 7%.
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In April 2022, prices in the capital began to fall by 0.6% and, for the same month of this year, this annual drop registered 6%.
Yes, in Bogotá, The largest drop recorded was 6.2%, a figure that occurred in February 2023. In fact, that month was the one in which they were recorded in real prices in the set of capitals reviewed by the Bank of the Republic. Overall, there was a drop of 6.7%.
The role of public policies
Experts from the housing construction sector explain that the changes that the Government has made in the Mi Casa Ya subsidies They have had an important weight in causing this situation to arise. At the most recent congress of the Colombian Chamber of Construction (Camacol)he former Minister of Housing, Luis Felipe HenaoI affirm that «Before, through Mi Casa, 89,000 homes were already built, later we built up to 160,000 a year. This reduced multidimensional poverty. Today we go back at least two decades.”.
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In that same event, Laura Milena Roa, president of the National Savings Fund (FNA), assured that although there is a challenge in economic matters, measures are being taken. “We are aware that there is a huge challenge. From the Government we are doing everything possible to reactivate the housing sector. It’s not the perfect solution, but it’s a start.”.
He also joined Mario Ramírez, president of the Colombian Federation of Real Property Exchanges (Fedelonjas)who said that investing in real estate continues to be a low-risk and competitively profitable option, if the appreciation of the property and the income from the rental fee are taken into account.
“In relation to the rental market, there has been a significant rebound over the last ten years. In 2013 there were approximately 4.66 million renter households in the country, while by 2022 this figure rose to 7.05 million, which represents an increase of 51.1%, according to the National Quality of Life Survey published by the Danish. That is, between 2013 and 2022 the stock of renter households increased by 2.83 million«, said.
According to the expert, In 2022, of the 17.5 million households reported in Colombia, 40.22% live in rentalswhile 38.96% live in their own home.
WEATHER – ECONOMY