Sold Out in a Day? Bogota’s Apt Demand
The other day my family and I were at the mall getting a few things on Friday 11/22. We took the puppy with us and he got lots of attention, but that is another story. So we had to go wash our hands in the bathroom after cleaning up one of Milo´s (our puppy) accidents. While the kids and I were in the bathroom, my wife inquired about an apartment project that had a booth set up in the aisle of the mall. We got out of the bathroom and rejoined my wife.
It was a project we had not heard about or seen before called Colina Living so we listened to the sales promotion. They had apartment sizes of 46m2, and 70m2 (if I remember correctly), and 90m2. My wife had to stop for a moment and then turned around to me and told me that this project just launched last Saturday Nov 16, 2024 AND that ALL the 46m2 apartments were sold the 1st day. I said, ¨WHAT¨!!! My wife asked the sales lady three times and the sales lady said all the smallest units sold out the first day and none of the 46m2 apts were available.
Needless to say we were both shocked. How is this possible that a project sells out of their small units on the first day, ground zero, of a brand new project? We got some prices from the sales person and she said the 46m2 (495 ft2) apt was 508,000,000 cop and 90m2 (968 ft2)apt was 980,000,000 cop. With the exchange rate being about 4300 cop / 1 usd after bank wire transfer fees and exchange rate fees, that would be about $118k usd and $227k usd to give you an idea.
Doing some rough math, that puts us at about 11M cop/m2 and 10.9M cop/m2 for the larger unit respectively (or $238 usd/ft2 and $234 usd/ft2). They did say it was projected to be Strato 5 (understand strata system).
I got to talk to someone who went and talked to them the first day, but decided not to purchase and even they were surprised. We even mentioned to some family members in another city that they sold their smallest units the first day and they too were surprised that units were moving that fast. I mean, people are supposed to not have much money because this is a 3rd world country, right?
I did some research and saw there were a couple new buildings completed in the area. One is called Conjunto Residencial Luar and the other is called Conjunto Residencial Carra An old Google maps street sign from 2021 said Carra has units from 141.1 m2 to 278.8 m2. Their website said the largest unit starts at about 2,424,000,000 cop, which is about $564k usd at the previous rates I noted. I don´t know when that info was last updated and it could be from a few years ago when the building was finished.
A couple months ago or so we were watching the news and they were talking about all the construction workers the building industry had to lay off and that things were not good for the building industry. I remember my wife and I looking at each other and wondering what cities the news was talking about, as here in Bogota it looks like there is alot of building going on and new projects launching all the time. Fake news, I don´t know? Doesn’t seem to reflect what I am seeing here, but then again, I am no expert. What do I know?
I know a couple people here that have bought apartment building projects at ground zero or the first stage of that project. They paid small monthly payments until the project was finished and then made a large balloon payment to own the unit they purchased. I hear the payment schedule is usually around 30 months or so. They then sold it for a profit when the building was finished. A positive profit is what everyone hopes for in the end, but I don’t know if that happens every time. I am sure some go upside down sooner or later.
Seems to me that a lot of people may have had similar ideas and really liked the area and location of that new project? It also seems like the smaller units are always the first to get purchased, because everyone needs a place to live. I have seen there is alot of single people with a dog(s) or married people here with a dog(s) and a property that size is perfect for them, not to mention that it is within walking distance of many things. It also costs a lot of money to have kids, so many people choose not to go down that route.
Again, I am just speculating, I don´t know. I am just trying to make sense of what I am seeing. Remember, my memory and the numbers above could be wrong. You should always do your own due diligence and there is no recommendation here one way or another or any vested interest in that project.
If I remember to….
This would be a great item to follow up on in 3 years or so, now that we have some documentation on the matter. I’ll have to see if I can remember to get some pictures if I am in that area sometime. I will also try to put together a list of the major builders in the Bogota area, that way we can stay up to date on the current future projects and not get blindsided.
See my other blog articles at PremierLifeBogota.com
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