E-Commerce Boom Drives Colombia Office Space Rebound

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombia’s commercial real estate market is recovering following a period of rising vacancies earlier this year as the pandemic drives demand from sectors such as data centers and e-commerce, according CBRE Group, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm serving owners, investors and occupiers.

Growth in pandemic-resilient business is helping absorb the oversupply of office space, according to Andres Cardona, vice president of CBRE Colombia.

With more employees working from home, the vacancy rate in the country’s two biggest cities rose to around 15% in the third quarter from less than 10% at the end of last year, Cardona said. It has since fallen to 12.6% in Bogota and 9% in Medellin, according to CBRE.“That’s giving us good prospects for next year,” Cardona said in a video interview. “This last quarter has been very dynamic.”

While retail and tourism have suffered, other service businesses are expanding, he said.

E-commerce has seen record growth in the last few months, according to CBRE, as more people shop from home. With that expansion, comes the need to find new space within cities that cuts the time in which products reach the client.

There are more than 20 data centers in Colombia -with big players such as Amazon Web Services having entered last year- and more are expected to open.

“E-commerce has had an enormous expansion” including Amazon and Mercado Libre, Cardona said.

Source: Bloomberg