Even in the midst of high inflation and the growth slowdown scenario that is taking place in some of the Latin American economies, the office market in the Mexican case has been consolidating demand and has temporarily removed the vacancy that occurred at the beginning of 2022.

The companies that lease know the differentiating element of seeking a suitable space with a permanence model that allows attracting talent that no longer only negotiates salary but also a series of attributes such as flexibility when performing their duties.

See also: New companies will continue to rent but demand less corporate space

A recent study by Kruze Consulting indicated that in January 2020, about 65% of new businesses in the United States were renting offices, and this percentage decreased to 36% in early 2021. However, as of December 2022, once again registered a recovery where 59% of companies rented office space again. Another behavior reported in the same study was the decrease in the rental percentage with respect to the company's total expenses, which went from 7% at the beginning of 2020 to be below 4% as of December 2022.

In the Mexican case, specifically in Mexico City, the gross demand for offices in 1Q 2023 registered more than 250,000 square meters, a figure that exceeded by 2.8 times what was registered in the first quarter of 2022. Monterrey also saw its gross demand for offices grow 2.3 times, compared to the same period in 2022.

However, it is Tijuana that registered the highest growth in rental closings, far exceeding the numbers registered in the first quarter of 2022. The growth in searches for office space would be maintaining a high correlation with the demand of companies resulting from nearshoring that They are pushing for industrial space, which has a positive impact on the commercial, residential and corporate sectors.

In the case of Mexico City, which widely dominates the figures for national demand, we were able to observe that space operations with larger surfaces close to 10,000 square meters returned in the first quarter of 2023, which we did not see appear during the first quarter of 2023. 

Of interest: Industrial construction of the country in expansion and concentrated in large-scale buildings

In the case of Monterrey, the rented areas of offices with sizes smaller than 500 square meters maintained the same percentage of 38% in the first quarters of 2023 and 2022. The South submarket stands out because it had 12% of the total absorption which exceeded 5 thousand square meters of activity that had not been presented in previous quarters, motivated by the registration of large buildings; entire floors were closed.

In Monterrey, unlike the previous period, there were more closures of spaces for sale and adjustments in starting prices, mostly upwards.

In the remainder of 2023, mixed-use projects are expected to continue to energize the national corporate market, where technology allows increasing occupancy in office spaces.