Who is investing in industrial real estate in Monterrey?

Mexican companies lead the way in occupying industrial real estate in Monterrey, Nuevo León, according to an October report by real estate services firm CBRE.

By the end of Q3, the report states, domestic companies accounted for 38% of industrial space demand in Monterrey, followed by Chinese firms at 23% and U.S. companies at 19%.

The industry that reported the largest growth in occupation of industrial space was the manufacturing sector at 38%, followed by the logistics and transportation sector at 33% and the automotive sector at 28%.

“The logistics and transportation sector had significant growth, going from 18% to 33% of the industrial demand in Monterrey. This increase was due to the expansion of Mexican companies in this industry,” CBRE’s analysis said. 

Between July and September, Monterrey saw a net acquisition of 431,000 square meters, an increase derived from pre-leased and custom-built properties, also known as build-to-suit projects. This led to a total of 1.3 million square meters acquired this year by the end of the third quarter – the highest figure ever recorded in one year.

CBRE added that during Q3, the total area of leased spaces acquired stood at 350,000 square meters. Compared to previous quarters, most of this acquisition came from leasing existing properties, which represented 68% of the total leased space. Build-to-suit properties accounted for 16% of that space.

Overall, industrial inventory in Monterrey closed at 13.8 million square meters, an annual increase of 13.5%. With 1.2 million square meters currently under construction and 700,000 in the planning stage – all of which are expected to commence construction in the next few months – the industry reports ongoing growth.  

“This level of industrial activity has kept the vacancy or availability rate at its lowest historical levels, which has also allowed the continuous increase in starting rental prices within all the city’s sub-markets,” the report explained, adding that Monterrey’s vacancy rate closed at 1.4%, continuing a downward trend that began in 2021.

In its most recent report on regional economies, the Bank of Mexico identified Monterrey as the second most likely metropolitan area to receive relocating foreign companies, behind only Saltillo, Coahuila.

The nearshoring-driven arrival and expansion of transnational companies to Monterrey has also boosted Nuevo León’s employment rate. 

According to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), more than 80,000 new jobs had been created in Nuevo León by late August, a figure that represents 12.9% of all new jobs in the country. 

Already exceeding its 2022 total, these numbers make Nuevo León the state with the highest employment rate in Mexico.

With reports from El Economista