Luxury housing boom arrives in San Miguel de Allende; developer invests 1,450 million pesos

Published Sunday, November 20th, 2022

One of the cities with the most significant tourism potential in Guanajuato is San Miguel de Allende, whose colonial style and cultural offerings have captured the attention of domestic and foreign travelers, a trend in which the real estate sector has found a market opportunity.

According to data from the state’s Tourism Observatory (OTEG), from January to September 467,521 tourists visited this city, which generated an economic revenue of just over 4,561 million pesos, a figure 48% higher than that recorded in the same period of 2021.

In this context, the real estate market has found a formula to exploit the demand of foreigners: luxury residential homes, with the potential for vacation rentals.

Recently, Grupo Pueblo Bonito presented a new project that seeks to integrate this concept. The firm plans to build a hotel and 45 residential units within the Distrito Corazón development.

The complex will have an investment of 1.45 billion pesos and is planned to be inaugurated in 2023.

The project will create more than 350 direct jobs and 1,500 indirect jobs through partnerships with local suppliers.

Among the characteristics of Pueblo Bonito’s luxury residences in San Miguel de Allende, the rental model stands out.

According to Alberto Coppel, general manager of Pueblo Bonito, those who acquire any of the units will have the option of entering a rental program managed by the complex. The income generated will be divided by 60% among the owners and 40% for the firm.

Currently, the residences are in the pre-sale marketing stage with prices ranging from 11 million to 22 million pesos.

It is worth mentioning that Pueblo Bonito has hotel complexes in Los Cabos San Lucas, Baja California, and in Manzanillo, Colima.

Coppel said that among the firm’s future plans is constructing a new hotel and residential project in the Riviera Maya, for which a natural reserve land has already been acquired.

Water scarcity, the challenge
The new Pueblo Bonito project is located within Distrito Corazón, a mixed-use development zone in Guanajuato that will offer housing, commercial, hotel, and services, promoted by the private sector in collaboration with the local government.

In order to detonate this area, in 2020, the authorities inaugurated the Zeferino Gutiérrez Obraje Park, which has an area of three hectares and to which more than 55 million pesos were allocated, between state and municipal resources.

However, Guanajuato has another challenge: water scarcity. According to the Drought Monitor of the National Water Commission (Conagua), eight of its municipalities (17.4% of the total) have a degree of drought, of which seven have severe drought.

“The great challenge here has been water, San Miguel de Allende has an area of opportunity in this issue. Distrito Corazón is looking for alternatives together with the government to take care of the supply. We have to be very careful with that, but I don’t think that real estate development will stop because of this, as long as it is orderly and with responsibility from everyone,” commented Coppel.