Between December and March, the rental price per square meter fell 10.8%; it fell from 15.01 to 13.39 pesos; prices remain down in the face of oversupply levels.
Querétaro, Qro. After almost a year and two months of the Covid.19 pandemic, the office market maintains an upward trend in terms of unemployment, a phenomenon that puts downward pressure on the prices of this type of property.
In the first quarter of the year, the city of Querétaro shows a vacancy rate of 25% in the office real estate market, that is, almost a quarter of the market is vacant, said the director of Market Research of the real estate platform Solili, Pablo López.
“The office market of Querétaro continues to show vacancy rates on the rise, there is still an oversupply in the market, currently we almost reach 100,000 square meters available, that is, we are almost at the same market levels as that of Guadalajara, where the inventory almost doubles that of Querétaro; we are still having the presence of quite a few spaces for sale ”, he pointed out.
Between December and March, the rental price of offices per square meter fell 10.8%, that is, it fell from 15.01 pesos to 13.39 pesos; prices remain down in the face of oversupply levels.
The construction of offices has continued with the development of some projects; however, the pace of construction was reduced.
Currently, the total number of developments built is 30% higher than a year ago.
Demand
The Querétaro market showed a slight improvement when registering a gross demand of 5,400 square meters, higher than the previous quarter which totaled 1,259 square meters.
“After some time without these figures appearing, we see that there is still interest on the part of investors, part of this demand corresponds to projects for sale, corresponds to spaces for sale, because investors consider that it is still a good option to buy offices to eventually putting them up for rent is a profitable investment in the long term ”, the specialist pointed out.
In the first quarter of the year, this real estate segment maintained decentralization trends, related to companies and corporations that continue to have headquarters in the capital of the country, but as a result of the contingency, their expansion projects are directing them towards less saturated markets such as Puebla , León and Querétaro.
Expectations
The Solili firm foresees that despite the slowdown in construction –which is 30% below the same period in 2020– there are movements that suggest a return to the corporate projects that were pending.
In the first quarter of the year, with the inventory of Querétaro, two buildings were added that are finishing construction on the Juriquilla corridor, adding 28,000 square meters of net profitable area.
The greatest demand for rent was centered in the corridors of Juriquilla, 5 de Febrero and Centro Sur; in addition to presenting a high number of unemployment located in the south-central zone.
Querétaro’s economy contracted 9.5% in 2020
Only primary activities advanced 0.1% annually, secondary activities fell 12.6% and tertiary activities 7.7% annually.
During 2020 the economic activity of Querétaro contracted 9.5% at an annual rate after the low performance of secondary and tertiary activities, both are the main support of the local economy and demonstrate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which had a greater impact from the second quarter of the previous year.
The behavior of the state economy generated a fall of 9.5% at an annual rate, only primary activities advanced 0.1% annually, secondary activities fell 12.6% and tertiary activities 7.7% annually, states the Quarterly Indicator of State Economic Activity ( ITAEE ).
The contraction of secondary and tertiary activities put pressure on the state’s growth throughout 2020; the primary activities contributed by 0.0 percentage points in the actual variation of the ITAEE , while the secondary contributed (-) 5.1 percentage points and Tertiary with (-) 4.4 percentage points.
During the fourth quarter of 2020 , the entity’s economic activity decreased 2.5% at an annual rate, accumulating seven consecutive quarters with decrease since the second quarter of 2019: (-) 1.1%, (-) 2.3%, (-) 1.6%, (-) 3.9%, (-) 22.6%, (-) 9% and (-) 2.5%, reports the National Institute of Statistics and Geography ( Inegi ).
By economic activity, both secondary – linked to local manufacturing – and tertiary – related to commerce and services – similarly accumulated seven quarters with annual decreases, from the second quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020.
The results of the fourth quarter of last year show that the negative variation of 2.5% in the state economy derived from the growth of primary activities and the decrease of the rest.
In the last period of 2020, primary activities were the only ones with positive values of 5.8% per year; According to ITAEE , these activities, which include agriculture, animal husbandry and exploitation, forestry, fishing and hunting grew due to the behavior of agriculture, as well as the breeding and exploitation of animals, generating that the entity will be located in position 18 nationally.
The secondary activities expose a drop of 1% annual rate in the reference period corresponding to the mining industry, manufacturing, construction and electricity; However, the fall is due to a greater extent to the slowdown in manufacturing activity, coupled with the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, water supply and gas through pipelines to the final consumer. In this segment, the entity ranked 11th among the 32 states.
Finally, tertiary activities decreased 3.8% annually in the fourth quarter of the year; This variation refers to the behavior of branches dedicated to the distribution of goods and activities related to information and asset operations, as well as services related to knowledge and personal experience; likewise, those related to recreation and the governmental part, and so on.
Performance
The negligible performance of the last period of 2020 in the tertiary sector was motivated by transport, mail and storage, in addition to temporary accommodation services and food and beverage preparation, commerce, educational services, and other services, with the exception of the government activities. In this area, the entity was placed in rung 19 at the national level.
With the results of the fourth quarter of last year, the state is part of the 27 entities that ended the year with a decrease, in addition, it ranked 17th among the 32 entities, contributing (-) 0.05 percentage points to the national variation.
Source: eleconomista.com.mx
