by Shane Henson — May 20, 2013—Jones Lang LaSalle, a global financial and professional services firm specializing in commercial real estate services and investment management, has identified real estate opportunities emerging across Latin America in response to mushrooming investment and growth by office-using companies, particularly in Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Chile.
According to the firm’s report, Latin America Prime Office Market Overview, Q4 2012, driven by a combination of direct foreign investment and some of the strongest gross domestic product (GDP) numbers in the world, the growth stories range from a space shortage in Lima, one of the world’s tightest office markets, to a flurry of leasing to take advantage of affordable rental rates in the more mature office markets of Mexico.
- Peru: Following economic growth of 6.3 percent last year, foreign direct investment could reach a record U.S $6.5 billion in 2013, establishing it as a top-performing Latin American economy. With rapid business growth, Lima’s existing office properties are near capacity, increasing competition for leases, spiking rental rates and spurring developers to build new offices.
- Colombia: Companies are absorbing office space faster than developers can complete new projects, driving vacancy rates to low single-digits and catching investor interest in Bogotá, Medellín and the growing office market in Cali.
- Mexico: Tenants increasingly seek energy-conserving, environmentally sustainable and mixed-use buildings in Monterrey, a key industrial hub.
- Chile: As the country’s capital city and center of industrial and financial sectors, Santiago will add a record 800,000 square meters of office space by the end of 2014.
- Panama: Widening of the Panama Canal ignited a construction boom that upon completion will add 582,000 square meters of offices to the market and nearly double its leasable office space.
