NAI Latin America & Caribbean Year-End 2009 Market Report
As was predicted in late 2008, during 2009 Latin America, with few exceptions, did not suffer the full brunt of the global recession caused by the failures in the financial markets. Given that Latin American developers do not generally rely upon financing and credit services for their real estate development, it was saved from the worst of the recession.
The region overall saw its economic growth rate decrease only about 2.6%. However, those that did suffer the most were Mexico (due to its dependence upon the US economy), Venezuela (due largely to the poor macro and micro economic policies of the current administration) and the Caribbean island countries. This latter group felt the effects rather strongly given that their economies are highly dependent upon tourism; there was a steep decline in international travel and hotel / resort development and investment.
Real estate development in the region slowed significantly, especially in the tourism sector. In this latter category, the region witnessed a decrease of up to 80% in the construction of new projects as the door to investment capital closed and financing tightened. In the office, industrial and retail sectors most planned projects were placed on hold and those under construction, with very few exceptions, slowed significantly the pace of activity. At the end of 2009, with strong signs of a general economic revival, the pace of construction activity largely increased and many developers revived their projects to break ground in 2010.
For 2010 the prognostication is healthy; overall the region is to grow by 3.3%. This figure is only held back due to the low or negative growth expected in Venezuela, the Caribbean (the tourism industry is not expected to recover until 2011) and a couple of other smaller countries that rely heavily upon exports, such as El Salvador and Guatemala. Other countries such as Brazil, Chile, Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico, for example, are expected to grow at a rate of 5.2%, 4.6%, 5%, 4% and 4.5% respectively. Overall, the office, retail, industrial and residential real estate markets should return to almost full, if not full activity by year-end.
If you would like to receive a 4 page pdf document with overview and detailed Market Report of each country, please contact us at swedback@naimexico.com
< Back to News List
|
|