Tulum Landlords Slash Rents as Tourism Crisis Leaves Properties Empty

Tulum, Quintana Roo — The economic slump caused by a collapse in tourism and the resulting loss of jobs has hit another sector of Tulum hard: the rental and sale of homes and business premises. With few tourists and fewer visitors extending their stays, landlords have cut prices — but workers say the reduced rents are still out of reach.

Residents, workers, small business owners and merchants describe this year’s crisis and government neglect as the most severe they have experienced.

“I’ve lived in Tulum since 2010 and I had never seen so many things like this. Right now there are lots of business premises for rent downtown and in the neighborhoods, and both the neighborhoods and the streets are a disaster. In all this time here, this had never happened,” said Lauro Méndez Rodríguez, a Tulum resident.

Méndez works at a gas station a few meters from the main avenue of the tourist municipality in central Quintana Roo. For two years, he said, he has watched a single premises display a “for rent” sign while the owner failed to find a tenant. In 16 years on the job he had known low seasons, which normally arrive at the end of each summer, but he described the current situation as far harsher.

“There are premises for rent. Tourism is low. So far nothing good is in sight,” he said.

An Oversupply of Housing

Residents of the Villas de Tulum neighborhood, at the junction of Federal Highway 307 — which becomes Tulum’s main avenue in that stretch — and Avenida Cobá, the road linking the town with the hotel zone, have a front-row view of the oversupply of homes for rent and for sale. The area is a strategic spot, with banks and supermarkets nearby.

Until a few months ago, one resident said, homes rented for as much as 16,000 pesos. Today prices have fallen to between 7,000 and 9,000 pesos for standalone two-bedroom houses or furnished apartments with parking spaces and utilities.

“It’s mostly a tourist town. The people who come to rent leave when occupancy falls; there are expensive rentals, but many people started lowering their prices and renting more cheaply. Between the sargassum, insecurity and all of that, everything works against us — and on top of it the streets full of potholes. Unfortunately the money isn’t being invested well,” the resident said.

In some parts of Tulum, buildings stand half-finished because of the economic crisis affecting the state.

An online search for rental housing in the neighborhood turned up between 35 and 70 properties listed on real estate portals such as Listu, propiedades.com and HomesApp, priced from 9,000 to 23,000 pesos.

One landlord said by telephone that he had been forced to cut the rent on a standalone two-bedroom home to 7,000 pesos because of prevailing economic conditions.

“It’s completely empty and remodeled — from the light switches and paint to the waterproofing. It has parking and a backyard. I’m asking for a one-year contract. We lowered it just now. Because of the situation in Tulum we’re renting it at that price,” he explained.

A furnished apartment advertised by the agency Mi Tulum Apartaments, located close to Avenida Satélite in the same neighborhood, costs 9,000 pesos a month. It includes two bedrooms with queen-size beds, a stove, water heater, washer and dryer, refrigerator and microwave. The same unit once rented for 15,000 pesos.

Nightlife has also declined, with commercial activity picking up only around holidays such as the recent Day of the Dead weekend.

Rents Still Out of Reach

“It’s very slow. I had never seen it with no people, no tourists. Work is very scarce,” said Seferina, a vendor in Tulum’s central park and a mother of three.

Seferina sells snacks and chicharrones in the afternoons and evenings and rents a room where she lives with her children. Even with lower prices, she said, paying the rent has become difficult.

“It still isn’t enough because there isn’t enough work, there are no people, and if there are people they don’t buy,” she said. On top of that, she must pay 300 pesos a week to the municipal government.

Signs advertising apartments, rooms and houses for rent are posted on streets throughout downtown and the tourist zone.