Forward-looking investors like the financial resilience and increasing transparency of markets in Latin America.
Canadian investments like the big pension plans are starting to look back at Mexico as an attractive proposition given the stability it showed throughout the recent financial crisis,” Eduardo Güémez
“There are still growth opportunities in Brazil and Mexico, where we see opportunities both for development and acquisitions,” said Eduardo Güémez, a Managing Director of LaSalle Investment Management.
Mexico’s office market is extremely attractive, although it’s getting harder to find assets. “We see a more crowded market given the influx of new capital from the local pension plans who before could not invest in real estate and are now doing it actively. That gives a lot more liquidity and more exit strategies.”
Güémez also likes industrial markets in Mexico, especially over the long term. “Clearly, the industrial market will have substantial growth given the reindustrialization of the whole of North America. Given changes in natural gas pricing and the whole dynamics of that, and the latest big thrust by the US to try to bring back manufacturing—that’s going to open up a lot of opportunities.”
Investors looking for new growth markets are also beginning to consider Columbia and Peru, he says. “Columbia and Peru have similar stories to what Mexico had several years back. You have a growing middle class, more access to credit, and a more stable market for new opportunities that are maybe not as crowded as the other two countries.”
