SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Rent in Tijuana has risen steadily since August due to the peso’s strength against the dollar, and real estate experts don’t expect it to weaken anytime soon.
Luis Fernando Serrano Macías, president of the Mexican Association of Real Estate Professionals, said landlords who charge in dollars are forced to increase rents to maintain profits.
Currently, the peso is trading at about 16.6 for one dollar. Back in August, it was around 20 to 1.
“These people are seeing their dollars be worth 20 percent less,” he said. “This has a real estate effect impacting rent values. It’s also reflected by the long lines at the border as people continue moving south of the border.”
Serrano Macías expects the peso to retain its value through July, so rents should also stay high.
“With our interest rates set at 11 percent, people are exchanging their dollars for pesos and investing the money in short and long-term investments in Mexico.”
For people like Luz Eva Florez, paying higher rent has become the new normal in Tijuana.
“They are very expensive,” she said in Spanish. “Many property owners are now charging rents in pesos and not in dollars because the dollar is too low, and it’s not profitable.”
She said everything has gone up in Tijuana since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Cost of housing and cost of living has doubled.”
According to the website livingcost.org, it costs $528 in rent and utilities per person to live in Tijuana while a family of four is paying $2,794.
“The truth is everything costs more,” Florez said.
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