Summary
Slowly, and only in some areas. El Tezal, where most foreign renters look, saw apartment rents rise 6.0% between April 2025 and October 2026, to about MXN 31,500 a month. San José del Cabo Centro fell 9.8%.
Don't trust the big headline numbers. The same listing site showed Los Cabos apartment rents at -8.4% earlier this year and shows +75.2% today, just by moving its start date two months. That's a change in which listings are online, not in what tenants pay.
El Tezal is still the market to watch. It has 110 apartments for rent, 91% of them under five years old, and houses there rose about as fast as apartments (+5.8%).
A normal furnished two-bedroom still costs roughly MXN 20,000 to 30,000 a month. La Marina and San Luciano list around MXN 31,900, El Médano around MXN 34,100, and Pedregal condos at a median of about $3,200.
Central Cabo San Lucas is the cheap end at MXN 15,740 for small 43 m² units. Its +43.9% reading rests on 38 listings, so read it as noise, not a boom.
Cabo is expensive even when rents stand still. Baja California Sur had the highest average rent of any state in late 2025, about MXN 26,700 a month, and around 52,000 tourism workers had no home of their own.
A bill to tie rent increases to inflation was filed in Baja California Sur in late 2025. We found no sign it has passed by October 2026, so your lease is the only protection.
Water is the new question for tenants. The city's first desalination plant shut down on September 1, 2026, and several neighborhoods went on emergency water rotation.
Airbnb hosts are cutting prices, not raising them. AirDNA shows the average nightly rate down 15.0% to $567, with occupancy up 11.9% to 48%.
For landlords, a long-term lease is a fair option. Asking-price data put gross yields around 6% in El Tezal against about 4.2% in El Médano, before the 25% tax a non-resident pays on gross rent.
Tourism won't push rents up fast right now. Los Cabos airport traffic fell 5.6% from January to September 2026, and international passengers fell 8.4%.
The bottom line: Cabo rents are high and drifting up in new condo areas, not surging. Tenants can negotiate on older or central units; landlords should price on today's listings, not on 2023's jumps.
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Message a proDid Cabo San Lucas rents keep climbing after the big post-pandemic jump?
Not at the same speed. Rents stayed at the high level they reached, and most areas now move by a few percent a year, up or down.
The jump was real. Los Cabos already had 351,111 residents in the 2020 INEGI census, many of them people who moved for work. Tourism came back fast after the pandemic, property prices and building costs rose, and workers kept arriving in a place with very little affordable housing.
That left Cabo with a high rent floor. What changed is the pace. In the latest Propiedades.com data (April 2025 to October 2026), El Tezal apartments are up 6.0% while San José del Cabo Centro is down 9.8%.
So when someone says Cabo rents "keep going up," they are half right: Cabo got far more expensive, but the fast part is over.
Why do Cabo San Lucas rent numbers contradict each other so much?
Because most rent figures come from listings, and the mix of listings online changes every month.
The clearest example comes from Propiedades.com itself. Earlier in 2026, measured from February 2025, it showed Los Cabos apartment rents down 8.4%. In October 2026, measured from April 2025, it shows them up 75.2%. Rents did not rise 75% in two months. What changed is which units were listed at the start of each period.
Geography adds to the confusion. Some data cover Cabo San Lucas only, others the whole municipality of Los Cabos, which also includes San José del Cabo and the hotel corridor. And a 12-month lease on a city apartment has little in common with a four-bedroom villa rented by the night.
What to do: ignore any single city-wide percentage. Look at one neighborhood, one property type, and at least 50 listings before you believe a trend.
Are apartment rents still rising across Los Cabos?
In some neighborhoods, yes, slowly. Across the whole municipality, the data are too noisy to say.
El Tezal, the biggest pool with 110 apartments for rent (22% of what Propiedades.com tracks in Los Cabos), is up 6.0% over 18 months. That's a steady rise, not a boom. San José del Cabo Centro went the other way, down 9.8% to about MXN 26,663.
Lienzo Charro Centro, the second-biggest pool with 69 apartments, lists around MXN 26,000, but the site no longer shows its change over time. Cabo San Lucas Centro shows +43.9% on only 38 listings, which we explain below.
The fair reading: rents are drifting up where new condos are being built, and flat to lower in older areas.
| Apartment market | Typical monthly rent | Change Apr 2025 – Oct 2026 | Active listings | Our reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Cabos overall | Not published | +75.2% | — | Listing mix, not a real rise |
| El Tezal | MXN 31,480 | +6.0% | 110 | Steady rise |
| Cabo San Lucas Centro | MXN 15,740 | +43.9% | 38 | Small sample, treat with care |
| San José del Cabo Centro | MXN 26,663 | -9.8% | 31 | Lower |
| Lienzo Charro Centro | About MXN 26,000 | Not shown | 69 | Large mid-priced pool |
Is El Tezal still pushing Cabo rents higher?
Yes, but gently. El Tezal apartments average about MXN 31,480 a month (around $1,690), up 6.0% since April 2025.
Supply explains a lot. Propiedades.com says 91% of the El Tezal rentals it tracks are zero to four years old. New gated condos with pools, security and air conditioning, close to Costco, Walmart and the main highway, are what renters see first, and they rent for more.
TuLugar, a second listing source, puts the median El Tezal condo rent at about $1,855 a month (around MXN 34,500) in October 2026, so the two sources land in the same zone.
Houses are moving at the same pace. El Tezal houses average about MXN 34,431, up 5.8% over the same period. Earlier in 2026, the site showed them falling; that reversal is another reason to look at levels more than at percentages.
| El Tezal rental type | Typical monthly rent | Change Apr 2025 – Oct 2026 | Active listings | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apartments (Propiedades.com) | MXN 31,480 | +6.0% | 110 | Steady rise |
| Houses (Propiedades.com) | MXN 34,431 | +5.8% | 57 | Steady rise |
| Condo median (TuLugar) | About $1,855 (MXN 34,500) | — | — | Same price zone |
| Higher-end 2BR examples | Around MXN 40,000 | — | Smaller segment | Premium tier |
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What does a normal long-term rental in Cabo San Lucas cost now?
A furnished two-bedroom in a decent building usually costs about MXN 20,000 to 30,000 a month ($1,080 to $1,610). Basic central units cost less, and premium condos far more.
Listings we saw in El Tezal in 2026 had furnished two-bedrooms from about MXN 22,000, with most between MXN 25,000 and 28,000, and better buildings around MXN 32,500 to 40,000. Treat these as examples, not an average.
The neighborhood averages on Propiedades.com fill in the rest: about MXN 13,200 in Casa Blanca, MXN 15,740 in Cabo San Lucas Centro (typical unit only 43 m²), MXN 26,000 in Lienzo Charro Centro, MXN 31,900 in La Marina and San Luciano, and MXN 34,100 in El Médano.
TuLugar puts the median condo rent for all of Los Cabos at about $1,637 a month (MXN 30,400). In Pedregal, the hillside luxury area above the marina, its median is about $3,218 (MXN 59,900), and those units are often priced in dollars.
What to do: if you need a modern two-bedroom with parking, a pool and air conditioning, budget MXN 25,000 to 30,000 and use the central average only as a floor.
| Area | Typical monthly rent | Source | Position in market |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casa Blanca | MXN 13,200 | Propiedades.com (9 listings) | Budget |
| Cabo San Lucas Centro | MXN 15,740 | Propiedades.com | Small central units |
| Lienzo Charro Centro | MXN 26,000 | Propiedades.com | Mid-market |
| El Tezal | MXN 31,480 | Propiedades.com | Main expat condo area |
| La Marina / San Luciano | MXN 31,900 | Propiedades.com | Upper-middle |
| El Médano | MXN 34,100 (about $2,000 on TuLugar) | Propiedades.com, TuLugar | Beach side, near downtown |
| Pedregal | About $3,218 (MXN 59,900) | TuLugar | Luxury |
Are Cabo San Lucas houses rising as fast as apartments?
In El Tezal, yes: houses are up 5.8% and apartments 6.0% since April 2025.
Across Los Cabos, Propiedades.com shows house rents up 15.2% over the same period. Like the 75.2% apartment figure, we'd take that as a sign the listings changed, not as a measure of what tenants pay.
The real gap is between product types, not between houses and apartments. New condos in gated buildings keep finding tenants at higher rents; older houses and apartments in the center and in San José del Cabo don't.
If you rent a house, the extra space usually costs only a few thousand pesos more than a new condo nearby: about MXN 34,431 against MXN 31,480 in El Tezal.
Did rents in central Cabo San Lucas really jump 44%?
No. The +43.9% on Propiedades.com rests on 38 small apartments, and the typical rent it shows today, MXN 15,740, is the same figure it showed earlier in 2026 when the change read 0.0%.
The typical unit in Cabo San Lucas Centro is only about 43 m², against about 100 m² in El Tezal. A handful of cheap listings disappearing or appearing is enough to swing the percentage.
What the level does tell you: central Cabo, next to the marina, Medano Beach and most jobs, is still the cheapest way to live in town, at around MXN 15,700 (about $846) a month for a small place.
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Message a proIs Cabo San Lucas still unaffordable even after rent growth slowed?
Yes. Rents that stop rising are still rents set at the top of the country.
A housing bill filed in Baja California Sur in late 2025 put the state's average rent at about MXN 26,715 a month, the highest of any state, above Nuevo León (MXN 26,535) and Mexico City (MXN 25,615). In the outer parts of San José del Cabo and La Paz, rents were around MXN 10,000 to 15,000, and in the best areas above MXN 100,000.
Local press reported in March 2025 that around 52,000 Los Cabos tourism workers had no home of their own, and that a social-interest house cost MXN 1.5 to 2.5 million. Most of those workers rent, often sharing.
So slower rent growth helps new tenants only a little. The problem is the level Cabo already reached.
Will Baja California Sur cap rent increases?
Not for now. A bill to tie rent increases to annual inflation was filed in the state congress in late 2025, and we found no sign it had passed by October 2026.
The proposal, from the PT party, would also create a state registry of residential leases and ban clauses used to dodge the rules. If it passes, Baja California Sur would be one of the first states with such a law.
Until then, the lease is your only protection. Tenants: ask for a 12-month contract with the yearly increase written as "no more than inflation (INPC)", and get the deposit amount and the return date in writing. Landlords: expect this debate to come back, and avoid big jumps at renewal that make you the example in the local press.
Is the water crisis changing what renters should check?
Yes. On September 1, 2026, Cabo San Lucas' first desalination plant shut down, and the city put several neighborhoods, including Las Palmas, Lomas del Valle and Los Cangrejos II, on an emergency water rotation.
A second plant is planned, but in June 2026 the local business council said paperwork was holding up its construction. Water supply will stay tight for a while.
There's no data yet on how this affects rents. But it changes what a cheap rent is worth. Before you sign, ask how many days a week the building gets city water, how big the cistern is, and who pays for water trucks. Put the answer in the lease.
Are Airbnb prices still rising in Cabo San Lucas?
No. Hosts are cutting nightly prices to keep their calendars full.
AirDNA's October 2026 data count 2,434 active short-term rentals in Cabo San Lucas. The average nightly rate is $567, down 15.0% in a year, while occupancy rose 11.9% to 48%.
The two moves cancel out. Revenue per available night (RevPAR) is $273, up just 1.5%. Hosts fill more nights, at lower prices.
Active listings fell 72.4% in a year, so the 88.9% jump in average revenue per listing ($84,100) mostly reflects who stayed in the dataset. RevPAR is the cleaner number, and it's flat.
| AirDNA Cabo San Lucas measure | Latest (Oct 2026) | Change in a year | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active listings | 2,434 | -72.4% | Big change in the sample |
| Occupancy | 48% | +11.9% | More nights booked |
| Average daily rate | $567 | -15.0% | Lower nightly prices |
| RevPAR | $273 | +1.5% | Almost no real growth |
| Average revenue per listing | $84,100 | +88.9% | Driven by the sample change |
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Should a Cabo landlord rent long-term or on Airbnb right now?
For a standard condo, a long-term tenant is often the safer choice in 2026. Airbnb prices are falling, while long-term rents in the main condo areas are still edging up.
Using TuLugar's October 2026 asking prices, an El Tezal condo listed at a median of about $374,000 and renting for about $1,855 a month gives roughly 6% gross. In El Médano, a median of about $569,000 against $2,000 a month gives about 4.2%.
Tax cuts that further. A non-resident landlord pays 25% of the gross rent, with no deductions, which takes 6% gross down to about 4.5% and 4.2% to about 3.2%, before HOA fees and repairs.
What to do: compare a 12-month lease against median Airbnb results for your exact building, not the city average. If the Airbnb plan only works at the top-quarter performance, take the tenant.
Is tourism still strong enough to push Cabo rents much higher?
Not right now. Tourism is still huge, but it is shrinking a little this year.
Los Cabos has more than 20,000 hotel rooms and millions of visitors a year, which keeps workers coming and gives the area a demand base most Mexican cities don't have.
But Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico counted 5.35 million passengers at Los Cabos airport from January to September 2026, down 5.6% from a year earlier. International passengers fell 8.4%, and 14.7% in September alone. FITURCA's mid-year figures also showed hotel occupancy below 2025.
That's no collapse. But fewer visitors means fewer new tourism jobs, and that removes the easiest argument for another quick rent jump.
What could make Cabo San Lucas rents start climbing fast again?
A tourism rebound on top of a housing shortage that hasn't gone away.
The shortage is still there. New projects mostly target foreign buyers and amenity-heavy condos, not cheap rentals for workers. Federal and municipal housing programs promise thousands of homes, but announced targets aren't homes yet.
Water could cut either way. Finishing the second desalination plant would allow more building; a long water crisis could slow new supply and push tenants toward buildings with reliable water.
We'd believe a new rent cycle had started if central apartments and San José del Cabo turned clearly positive, El Tezal moved above 10% a year, and Airbnb nightly rates rose along with occupancy. None of that is happening yet.
So, are rents still rising in Cabo San Lucas?
Slowly, and only in some places. Cabo rents are high everywhere, rising gently in new condo areas and flat or lower in older ones.
El Tezal apartments are up 6.0% and houses 5.8% since April 2025. San José del Cabo Centro is down 9.8%. City-wide figures of +75.2% or -8.4% from the same site tell you more about listings than about rents.
Short-term rentals are not booming either: AirDNA's nightly rate is down 15.0%, with RevPAR flat.
A furnished two-bedroom at MXN 20,000 to 30,000 is normal, and the best new buildings cost more. Tenants have room to negotiate on older and central units; landlords should price from today's listings and write the yearly increase into the lease.
Our methodology
This article estimates whether long-term rents are still rising in Cabo San Lucas, neighborhood by neighborhood, and how short-term rentals compare.
Long-term rents come from Propiedades.com's neighborhood pages (average asking rent, change from April 2025 to October 2026, number of listings) and from TuLugar's October 2026 medians. We keep apartments and houses separate and we flag any figure built on fewer than about 50 listings or whose change flipped when the start date moved. Short-term rental figures come from AirDNA only; we don't mix them with other providers.
Affordability and the rent-control bill come from local press coverage of the Baja California Sur housing bill and of Los Cabos housing shortages. The landlord tax rate comes from the income tax law (article 158). Tourism comes from Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico and FITURCA, and water from the Los Cabos city government and the local business council.
We checked these figures in October 2026. Conversions use about 18.6 pesos per US dollar and 20.9 pesos per euro.
All rents here are asking rents, not signed leases, and listing averages move when the mix of listings changes. Gross yields compare two separate asking-price samples, so they are rough guides, not the return on a specific unit.
Key sources used for this analysis include Propiedades.com on El Tezal apartment rents, Propiedades.com on Cabo San Lucas Centro apartments, Propiedades.com on San José del Cabo Centro apartments, Propiedades.com on El Tezal houses, TuLugar's Los Cabos market report, AirDNA's Cabo San Lucas data, Posta on the Baja California Sur rent bill, Posta on Los Cabos workers without housing, Income tax law, article 158, GAP, September 2026 passenger traffic, FITURCA's June 2026 Los Cabos Tourism Observatory, Los Cabos city government on the September 2026 water rotation, Consejo Coordinador de Los Cabos on the second plant's delay, INEGI's 2020 profile of Baja California Sur, SEDATU's Baja California Sur housing program, and the Municipality of Los Cabos on planned housing.
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