Foreign Buyers Flood Mexico’s Property Market

Mexico’s real estate market is riding a wave of foreign investment, with cross-border capital reshaping everything from Baja condos to Monterrey warehouses.

International buyers snapped up more than 40,000 properties across the country in 2024, according to Realty One Baja & Pacific, accounting for roughly 10 percent of all real estate transactions nationwide, Mexico Business News reported. U.S. citizens made up about 65 percent of those foreign purchases — a sign of deepening economic and lifestyle ties between the two countries. Markets closest to the border saw the strongest foreign participation, with international buyers representing 15 to 60 percent of all activity in places like Tijuana, Mexicali, Monterrey and Los Cabos.

Online traffic tells a similar story: 98 percent of property searches in Tijuana and 87 percent in Monterrey came from U.S. users.

Alfredo Hernández, CEO of Realty One Baja & Pacific, said the impact of these cross-border deals is particularly important for generating investment in local development and employment in Mexico.

The cross-border flow cuts both ways. From April 2024 to March 2025, foreign buyers purchased 78,100 properties in the United States worth $56 billion, according to the National Association of Realtors. Mexico ranked third in total investment value, behind only China and Canada. Mexican capital was concentrated in Texas, with 40 percent of it, followed by California and Arizona.

Low interest rates and easing inflation are helping sustain that momentum, said Mariza Alvarado, commercial director at Dividenz, adding that multifamily real estate continues to perform as a tangible asset that “protects capital and generates income in dollars.”

Mexico’s property boom is also getting a lift from nearshoring. The shift of manufacturing and logistics operations closer to the U.S. has fueled industrial absorption, topping 2 million square meters in 2024 — that’s more than 21.5 million square feet — and spurred housing demand across the northern corridor. Developers and investors are now chasing mixed-use and workforce housing projects to serve new industrial hubs.

Hernández said professionalizing Mexico’s brokerage industry will be key to sustaining growth, noting that seven in ten deals still come from personal referrals.

“International operations require trained agents, standardized processes and networks of trust,” he said. “Strengthening the community of agents means strengthening the market.”

— Eric Weilbacher