Quintana Roo has emerged as one of the most attractive real estate markets due to its tourist vocation and the expectation of growth around federal government infrastructure projects such as the Tulum airport and the Mayan Train; However, experts affirm that the state presents some challenges in terms of urban planning and regulation, which should alert both the state and municipal governments in order to correct the situation.
According to the Mexican Association of the Real Estate Industry (AMII), there are approximately 1,000 residential projects under construction located in the north of the state, 40% are in Tulum.
“The real estate offer in the area is impressive, we are talking about a large number (of projects), but not necessarily of quality. The participation of real estate professionals is important to guide clients where they should go to reduce the risk of a bad shopping experience,” said Wilberth J. Gutiérrez, national president of the AMII.
In addition to construction licenses and land use permits, which are state and municipal, developers in the Riviera Maya must process some federal authorizations, among them: the Environmental Impact Manifesto (MIA) and the one related to the Federal Maritime Terrestrial Zone (Zofemat) that authorizes the construction of properties facing or close to the sea fringes.
In this regard, Marcelo Ramírez, president of AMII Cancun, mentioned that the accelerated growth of the market surpasses the public organizations in charge of supervision and regulation.
“We have very high numbers of projects under construction and that, in a certain way, has exceeded the capacity of the authorities for the processing (of permits), it was very easy for them to give the go-ahead signal to some of these projects without them being 100% regulated. “, said Ramírez during a webinar organized by Neivor, a technology company for condominium management.
For his part, Gutiérrez stressed that only 50% of the country’s states have real estate laws and Quintana Roo is one of them, but it is not necessarily adequate for the current reality of the state.
“Regulation towards developers must be involved. There must be stricter criteria and regulations to endorse construction licenses and not only take into account the technical part, but also the financial part of the projects, in order to guarantee the investment of end buyers,” he said.
“There was no time to plan”
In addition to regulation, AMII experts agreed that planning and infrastructure are two factors that must be prioritized to guarantee orderly real estate development and the desired economic growth in Quintana Roo.
Although the great works of the Mayan Train and the Tulum airport have generated equipment actions in its surroundings, for Melania Cisneros, president of AMII Tulum, the real estate sector is ahead of this infrastructure.
“Being a practically virgin region, there was no time to plan. We have a challenge to focus on sustainability and create innovative planning strategies in which the government and business sectors converge,” said the specialist.
In this sense, the national president of the Association, remarked that it is not only about promoting the construction of infrastructure, but also about creating urban planning instruments that transcend over time, regardless of changes in municipal and state government.
“Unfortunately, whenever there are good ideas for infrastructure and regional development, they do not necessarily have the continuity to last in the long term, and this could be a factor that interrupts current growth,” Gutiérrez said.
Source: El Economista
