Anti-gentrification protestors in Mexico City hold signs demanding urgent real estate regulation, July 4, 2025. Photo: Fernando Llano/AP.
Hundreds of people protested against gentrification in Mexico City, bringing back into the public debate access to housing in the country’s capital. This has become a central issue due to several factors that have caused a housing crisis and increasing urban inequalities.
The protest that took place on July 4 was also against US migration in the Mexican capital, while the Trump government is massively deporting Mexican nationals and other Latin Americans from the US.
The demonstrators shouted slogans defending their right to housing, as well as against policies that attract foreign residents or visitors to the Mexican capital.
The latter have been used by extreme right-wing groups to promote xenophobic and anti-immigrant discourses while not touching the underlying structural problem: the displacement of the original inhabitants of the central Mexico City neighborhoods to the periphery.
A city of expensive rents
For some years now, Mexico City has been experiencing an excessive increase in house rents, which has made it difficult for many people to live in central areas. This has had a negative impact on communities and has caused the expulsion of people with fewer resources to more distant areas or outside of the capital.
In 2020, according to data from the Secretariat of Economy of Mexico, the population of Mexico City was 9,209,944. The age range with the highest population concentration was 20-34, accounting for 24% of the total.
However, for these more than nine million people, in 2020, there were only 2.76 million homes in the capital. Of these, 24% are rented, a figure higher than the national average of 16.4%, while the average monthly cost of renting an apartment in Mexico City is around 16,000 pesos and varies from municipality to municipality.
According to data from the Mexico City government, between 2013 and 2019, rents increased up to eight times more than the minimum wage, causing an increase in the percentage of income that households spend on rent payments and the displacement of people from their traditional places of living.
The highest rents are recorded in the municipalities of Miguel Hidalgo, with a cost of over 32,000 pesos; Cuajimalpa, with prices above 26,000 pesos; Álvaro Obregón, with a monthly rent of over 20,000 pesos; and Cuauhtémoc, with an average rent of 19,0000 pesos per month.
Housing controlled by the market
One of the factors contributing to the rental housing market in the capital is that the majority of the population does not have access to mortgage credit. In addition, the housing supply is still insufficient, with an average of 6,000 units built per year, of which a small share is of social interest.
In fact, access to housing in the capital is mainly through the market, which takes into account factors such as the age and condition of the building/apartment, supply and demand, and capital gains to establish prices. All this caused the housing price index to increase twice as much as inflation in the capital, mainly affecting the poorest people.
By 2020, according to the Secretariat of Economy, lower-income households spent up to 51% of their income on rent, while higher-income households spent 8%.
Another phenomenon causing the displacement of the poorest people to the peripheries is the increase and deregulation of temporary rentals, such as Airbnb, which has exacerbated the housing crisis and urban inequalities.
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A dormitory city
Between September 2023 and September 2024, the supply on Airbnb in Mexico City increased by 256 new spaces, reaching 26,582 in total, according to data from Habitat International Coalition Latin America (HIC-AL).
Among this, complete homes represent 65.3% of the supply, concentrated in the municipalities that have the highest rental prices, such as Cuauhtémoc, Miguel Hidalgo, Benito Juárez, and Coyoacán, which, according to HIC-AL, represent 84.62% of the total number of Airbnb spaces.
The profitability of temporary rentals is significantly higher than traditional rentals, with a short-term rental/long-term rental ratio of 289%, according to HIC-AL.
This has caused the temporary rental market to continue to grow, even though the Mexico City government has announced regulations for this sector.
In addition, there is a concentration of housing destined for temporary rentals. According to data from the HIC-AL, 37.6% of hosts who have at least one space with more than 180 nights booked administer multiple properties.
These 456 managers account for 76.4% of the spaces that exceed the 180-night criterion established in the last reform approved in the capital, thus generating a “black market” for temporary rentals that is based on illegal evictions in disputed properties and which, in turn, seriously affects the collection of taxes with which the capital’s government could be promoting its new housing programs.
The data is conclusive: according to HIC-AL, the taxes collected from the Housing Tax were barely 650 million pesos in 7 years.
The government’s response has not been sufficient
In the explanatory memorandum of the current Housing Law of Mexico City, the law that expanded programs for access to social housing with the aim of combating gentrification, the Mexico City government recognizes the need to address this problem in order to curb the excessive increase in rents and encourage the construction of affordable housing.
Thus, the current administration, headed by Clara Brugada, has strengthened the social housing policy and the Housing Institute of Mexico City had the highest public budget in 2024.
In addition, in October 2024, the Mexico City Congress approved reforms of the Tourism Law and other related laws. There, it was established that the authorities must ensure that housing complies with conditions of habitability, affordability, accessibility, and have infrastructure and basic services such as drinking water, sanitation, energy, and civil protection services.
However, Mexico City expects the arrival of more than five million visitors for the 2026 World Cup, so the temporary rental market is expected to grow, while the demand for low-income housing increases and reaches a critical point.
(Diario Red)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/SL
