Colombia has become the country in Latin America with the highest proportion of homes that live in lease. This is revealed by the “Real Estate 2025” report by BBVA Research, which analyzes figures from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) and Gowthlab.
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The document indicates that 40% of households in Colombia live for renta percentage that far exceeds the regional average of 21% and is above countries such as the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
The trend, which has been consolidated for several years, reached a turning point in 2022, when the number of tenant homes exceeded that of owners. According to the National Life Quality Survey of the DANE, Currently more than 7.3 million Colombian homes live in lease, compared to 7.1 million that inhabit their own home. This transformation is not isolated, but responds to deep changes in the economic, urban and cultural environment of the country.
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“In Colombia, since 2018 there is an increasing trend that materialized in 2022: the number of homes in lease surpassed that of owners”, Explained Mario Ramírez, president of the Colombian Federation of Root Property (Fedelonjas).
According to Ramírez, one of the main causes of this phenomenon is accelerated urbanization. “With more people migrating from the countryside to the city in search of employment and opportunities, demand for more flexible housing solutions has increased. The lease is a viable alternative in contexts where the costs of the soil and construction make access to their own housing increasingly difficult”He added.
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Households in rent
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The phenomenon is also linked to changes in the labor market and new generational preferences. The greatest mobility between cities, driven by hybrid work models, has led to many homes, especially young people, opt for lease as a conscious decision. “Generations such as millennials are seeing lease as a viable option, not only as a necessity. Lease remains an attractive and safe model, especially for those who cannot access credit,” said Ramírez.
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Despite the recent reduction of interest rates from the Bank of the Republic, household confidence to acquire housing has not recovered. A worrying aspect is that 88.45% of households living in lease belong to strata 1, 2 and 3, which reflects a strong relationship between the limitations of access to financing and the concentration of rent in the lower income sectors.
Another structural factor that affects this reality is the lag between the formation of new homes and the construction of formal homes. According to the Dane, Between 2000 and 2025 9.1 million households were formed, while only 9 million homes were builtof which only 5.9 million were formal. This gap has contributed to the increase in the housing deficit, both quantitative and qualitative, and has forced many families to resort to the lease or informal housing solutions.
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Households in rent
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“The change in the structure of Colombian households is also redefining the housing model. Of the more than 17 million homes in the country, about seven million are households without children, a figure that demonstrates the new family dynamics and lifestyles that also affect housing decisions”Said Fedelonjas president.
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These new configurations tend to prefer smaller housing, of lower cost and greater mobility, which reinforces the inclination for the rent.
