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SUMMARY
A house in Colombia currently costs roughly COP 500 million to COP 1 billion across much of the formal urban market, with about COP 800 million serving as a useful national benchmark rather than a typical price everywhere.
The national asking-price median hides a huge geographic spread. A budget that sits above the house median in Manizales can be well below it in Medellín and Cartagena, so the city often matters more than the Colombian average.
COP 300 million is still a real house budget, but it sits close to Colombia's affordable end. COP 500 million is where buyers start getting meaningful choice nationally, while COP 800 million to COP 1.2 billion gives much stronger buying power in the major cities.
The expensive markets have moved surprisingly far. Medellín's advertised house median is now around COP 1.2 billion and Cartagena's around COP 1.34 billion, which makes the old idea of Colombia as a uniformly bargain-priced property market increasingly misleading.
Cheap houses have not disappeared. Around $100,000 can still buy a house in secondary cities and peripheral neighborhoods, but it usually means compromising on location, condition, size or proximity to the areas foreign buyers know best.
Used houses deserve more attention than new ones. Current listing analysis suggests new housing carries roughly a 22% per-square-meter premium over used housing in Bogotá and close to 50% in Medellín, leaving potentially large renovation budgets for buyers willing to consider older stock.
Weak home sales have not translated into falling house prices. New-house prices rose another 3.68% in the latest quarter while housing starts were down 19.6% in the first half, so softer demand is being accompanied by weaker incoming supply.
Foreign buyers face an extra complication that Colombian price indices do not capture: the peso. An unchanged COP 800 million house costs $200,000 at COP 4,000 per dollar but $250,000 at COP 3,200, a 25% increase before the seller changes the peso price at all.
Financing changes the affordability picture just as sharply. At roughly 12.8% effective annual interest, a 70% mortgage on a COP 800 million house produces a payment above COP 6 million per month, which is why the same property can look manageable to a foreign cash buyer and extremely expensive to a local borrower.
The practical conclusion is that Colombia remains relatively affordable internationally, but not uniformly cheap. Buyers targeting ordinary cities still have substantial options below COP 500 million; buyers focused on desirable parts of Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena should increasingly think in terms of COP 800 million to COP 1.5 billion.
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How much does a house cost in Colombia right now?
A house in Colombia currently costs around COP 500 million to COP 1 billion for much of the formal urban market, although prices below COP 300 million and above COP 2 billion are both common once we move between cities and neighborhoods.
The broadest current listing dataset gives us a useful starting point. TuLugar monitors more than 36,000 houses for sale across Colombia and puts the median asking price at roughly $257,000. At an exchange rate around COP 3,200 per dollar, that works out to approximately COP 820 million.
That number needs some context. It describes houses actively advertised online, where larger urban properties are heavily represented. It does not mean that the typical Colombian household lives in a COP 820 million house, and it certainly does not mean every Colombian city revolves around that price.
The range tells us more. Around COP 250–400 million can still buy a house in cheaper cities or less central neighborhoods. COP 500–800 million opens up a much broader part of the market. Once the budget reaches COP 1 billion, buyers have considerable choice nationally, although that money goes much less far in premium Medellín, Bogotá and Cartagena.
Houses also include land, which makes apartment comparisons messy. TuLugar currently puts Colombia's median apartment asking price near $135,000, barely more than half its $257,000 house median. Treating the two as interchangeable versions of the same property would distort what a house actually costs.
| House budget | Rough USD equivalent | What it buys today | Typical positioning |
|---|---|---|---|
| COP 200–300m | $63k–94k | Small, older or less central house | Entry level |
| COP 300–500m | $94k–156k | Decent house in many Colombian markets | Lower-middle to middle |
| COP 500–800m | $156k–250k | Broad choice outside premium zones | Strong middle market |
| COP 800m–1.2bn | $250k–375k | Good house in major cities | Upper-middle |
| COP 1.2bn+ | $375k+ | Premium house or expensive location | Premium/luxury |
Which Colombian cities have the most expensive houses?
Cartagena and Medellín currently stand out among the major Colombian house markets, while cities such as Manizales, Armenia and Barranquilla offer much lower entry prices.
TuLugar's current house inventory puts the national median around $257,000. Manizales is considerably below that at roughly $212,000 across more than 2,600 houses. Armenia is around $219,000 and Barranquilla roughly $248,000.
Medellín moves into another price bracket. Its current house median is close to $382,000. Cartagena is higher again at roughly $420,000 across more than 1,400 houses.
Those differences completely change the meaning of a "$250,000 house in Colombia." In Manizales, that budget sits above the current house median. In Medellín, it sits well below it. In Cartagena's expensive coastal or historic areas, $250,000 can quickly become an apartment budget rather than a comfortable house budget.
Pereira also produces surprisingly high house figures in some datasets. Those deserve more caution because advertised inventory includes a disproportionate number of larger houses and suburban properties. Portal medians tell us what is currently for sale, not necessarily the value of a typical home owned by local residents.
| City | Current house median asking price | Approx. COP | Position versus Colombia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manizales | $212k | COP 678m | Below national median |
| Armenia | ~$219k | COP 701m | Below national median |
| Barranquilla | ~$248k | COP 794m | Around national median |
| Colombia | $257k | COP 822m | Benchmark |
| Medellín | ~$382k | COP 1.22bn | Expensive |
| Cartagena | ~$420k | COP 1.34bn | Very expensive |
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How much does a house cost in Bogotá?
For a decent house in Bogotá today, a practical budget starts around COP 600 million and moves quickly toward COP 1 billion or more in better-known neighborhoods.
Bogotá is difficult to reduce to one house median because the city is enormous and house inventory differs sharply from apartment inventory. Bancolombia's analysis of Tu360 Inmobiliario provides a useful anchor: used residential property in Bogotá was listed at a median around COP 6.4 million per square meter, while new housing was around COP 7.8 million.
We should not simply multiply those figures by any house size and call the result a house valuation. Land, neighborhood and lot dimensions matter much more for houses. The calculation is still useful for understanding the scale of Bogotá prices.
At the used-property benchmark, 100 square meters corresponds to roughly COP 640 million. At 120 square meters, the figure reaches COP 768 million. A 150-square-meter property reaches approximately COP 960 million before we even account for unusually valuable land.
Location can pull those figures dramatically in either direction. Houses in parts of Bosa, Kennedy or peripheral Suba can sell far below what buyers encounter in Usaquén, Santa Bárbara and other affluent northern districts. Someone searching for "a house in Bogotá" can easily see COP 400 million and COP 2 billion listings on the same afternoon.
| Illustrative property size | At COP 6.4m/m² used | At COP 7.8m/m² new | Rough USD range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 m² | COP 512m | COP 624m | $160k–195k |
| 100 m² | COP 640m | COP 780m | $200k–244k |
| 120 m² | COP 768m | COP 936m | $240k–293k |
| 150 m² | COP 960m | COP 1.17bn | $300k–366k |
How much does a house cost in Medellín now?
A good Medellín house increasingly costs around COP 800 million to COP 1.5 billion, with the most internationally popular parts of the city pushing buyers toward the upper end of that range.
TuLugar currently tracks more than 1,200 Medellín properties and puts the house median around $382,000, roughly COP 1.2 billion at today's exchange rate.
The wider market confirms that Medellín is no longer a cheap Colombian property market. Bancolombia found used housing around COP 6.9 million per square meter and new housing around COP 10.3 million. That is one of the widest new-versus-used gaps among the major Colombian markets reviewed here.
Neighborhood data show why buyers can still encounter much lower numbers. Current median sale values across property types sit around $284,000 in Laureles-Estadio, $241,000 in Belén and roughly $178,000 in Robledo. These figures include apartments, so they do not directly price a house, but they reveal how much location changes the entry point.
Someone arriving with $100,000 because Medellín has a reputation for inexpensive real estate will struggle to find the kind of house usually shown in expatriate property videos. At $250,000, there are real options. Around $350,000–$450,000, the search becomes far broader.
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Is Cartagena really that expensive for a house?
Yes. Cartagena is currently one of Colombia's most expensive house markets, but local residential neighborhoods can cost a fraction of what buyers see in the historic center or along the premium waterfront.
TuLugar currently monitors more than 1,400 Cartagena houses and puts the median asking price near $420,000, roughly COP 1.34 billion. That is around 60% above its national house median.
The more revealing comparison happens inside Cartagena itself. Torices currently has an all-property median around $119,000. El Laguito sits above $250,000. Bocagrande is around $400,000. Castillogrande is above $600,000 across its broader property inventory, while Centro and San Diego reach approximately $1.5 million.
House-only samples can climb even higher in those historic and premium districts because houses there are scarce, large and often have commercial or short-term-rental potential.
A buyer therefore needs to decide which "Cartagena" they actually want. An ordinary residential house a few kilometers away from the tourist core belongs to a completely different market from a colonial property inside the walled city.
| Cartagena area | Current broader sale median | Approx. COP | Market |
|---|---|---|---|
| Torices | $119k | COP 381m | Lower-priced urban |
| El Laguito | ~$252k | COP 806m | Tourist/coastal |
| Manga | ~$291k | COP 931m | Established residential |
| Bocagrande | ~$404k | COP 1.29bn | Premium coastal |
| Castillogrande | ~$614k | COP 1.96bn | High-end |
| Centro | ~$1.5m | COP 4.8bn | Historic luxury |
Can you still buy a house in Colombia for under $100,000?
Yes, houses below $100,000 still exist in Colombia today, but buyers usually give up something significant in location, size, age or condition.
At an exchange rate near COP 3,200 per dollar, $100,000 gives a budget of roughly COP 320 million. That remains enough to participate in the Colombian housing market rather than merely chase distressed properties.
We can see this in current city data. Villavicencio's overall median sale price is around $80,000. Montería is roughly $112,000 across property types, while Cúcuta is close to $122,000. Within larger cities, lower-priced neighborhoods can also fall into the same range.
Cartagena gives a particularly useful example because its reputation is expensive. TuLugar currently records more than 300 properties citywide between $50,000 and $100,000. Those are not colonial houses beside the Caribbean, obviously. They show that the less tourist-oriented city still operates at Colombian local-market prices.
So $100,000 remains a genuine Colombian property budget. It simply stops being very powerful once the target becomes a modern detached house in Laureles, El Poblado, northern Bogotá, Bocagrande or Castillogrande.
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What does COP 300 million buy in Colombia today?
COP 300 million is currently enough to buy a Colombian house, but it sits near the affordable end of the formal market and leaves little room for premium locations.
The most useful comparison comes from Colombia's own social-housing thresholds. With the current minimum wage at COP 1,750,905, the standard VIS ceiling of 135 minimum wages comes to roughly COP 236 million. In several large urban markets, a 150-wage ceiling brings that figure to about COP 263 million.
A COP 300 million budget therefore sits only modestly above much of the country's regulated affordable-housing range.
That lines up with what buyers see in practice. COP 300 million can buy an ordinary house in cheaper municipalities, peripheral neighborhoods and parts of secondary cities. The same money in Medellín or Bogotá often means accepting an older property, a smaller house or considerable distance from the most sought-after areas.
In prime Cartagena, COP 300 million barely enters the market at all.
| Housing benchmark | Approx. value | What COP 300m means |
|---|---|---|
| VIP ceiling | COP 158m | Far above |
| Standard VIS ceiling | COP 236m | Above |
| Higher metro VIS ceiling | COP 263m | Slightly above |
| COP 300m buyer | COP 300m | Affordable-market budget |
| National advertised house median | ~COP 822m | Far below median |
Is COP 500 million enough for a good house in Colombia?
COP 500 million is a useful house budget in Colombia today and gives buyers real choice in many cities, although it remains tight in the best parts of Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena.
At roughly $156,000, COP 500 million is almost twice the higher VIS threshold in major urban areas. That moves the search beyond the heavily constrained affordable-housing market.
The difference becomes obvious outside the premium cities. Current overall sale medians sit around $138,000 in Armenia, $177,000 in Manizales and Barranquilla, $185,000 in Santa Marta and $186,000 in Pereira. Those figures mix property types, but they show that a COP 500 million buyer is operating near the center of several sizeable Colombian markets.
Medellín changes the equation. COP 500 million is well below its current house median, although cheaper districts and older houses still create options. Cartagena becomes even tougher if the buyer wants the coast or historic core.
COP 500 million is a strong national budget and a modest premium-city budget.
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Is COP 1 billion enough for a good house in Colombia?
Yes. COP 1 billion gives strong buying power across most of Colombia, although it no longer guarantees a premium house in Medellín, northern Bogotá or Cartagena.
At roughly $312,000, COP 1 billion is above Colombia's current national house asking median of about $257,000. It also sits comfortably above the overall market medians in cities such as Armenia, Manizales, Barranquilla, Cali, Santa Marta and Villavicencio.
The gap narrows sharply in expensive cities. Medellín's house median is currently around COP 1.2 billion. Cartagena's is closer to COP 1.34 billion. A COP 1 billion buyer can absolutely find houses in both cities, but the budget requires more selectivity over neighborhood, size and condition.
Bogotá sits somewhere between those extremes. Using Bancolombia's used-housing benchmark of COP 6.4 million per square meter, COP 1 billion corresponds loosely to 156 square meters before differences in land value are considered.
In much of Colombia, COP 1 billion feels expensive. In the handful of neighborhoods foreigners and wealthy Colombians compete hardest for, it increasingly feels like an upper-middle budget.
Are Colombian house prices still going up?
Yes. The freshest official data show Colombian new-house prices still rising strongly, with house prices increasing 3.68% in the latest quarter alone.
DANE's latest New Housing Price Index reported a 2.41% quarter-on-quarter increase across new housing overall. Houses increased faster than apartments: 3.68% for houses against 2.37% for apartments.
That house figure is especially useful here. In the previous quarter, DANE had already recorded a 3.23% increase in new-house prices. Two strong quarterly increases in a row are harder to dismiss as noise.
The broader housing index has moved around considerably during the past two years, so Colombia is not in some simple straight-line boom. But anyone waiting for a nationwide nominal house-price collapse has not seen one yet.
The latest evidence points the other way: new houses are still becoming more expensive.
| Recent DANE period | New-house quarterly change | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Previous quarter | +3.23% | Strong increase |
| Latest quarter | +3.68% | Faster increase |
| Latest apartments | +2.37% | Rising, but slower |
| Latest total new housing | +2.41% | Prices still advancing |
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Why are Colombian house prices rising when home sales are weak?
Colombian house prices are currently holding up because weak construction has reduced new supply at the same time that demand has moved through a stop-start recovery.
This is one of the stranger parts of the housing market. Banco de la República reported earlier this year that housing starts had fallen to their lowest level in 14 years while inventories of both new and used homes were declining. New-home sales at that stage were running 11.7% above the previous year.
The picture cooled considerably afterward. Camacol's latest first-half figures show new-home sales falling 9.9% year-on-year. Launches dropped 15.8%, while housing starts fell 19.6%.
Put those numbers together and the market becomes easier to read. Demand recovered first, then softened. Developers never responded with a large wave of new construction. Starts actually fell faster than sales during the first half.
That is an awkward setup for buyers hoping weak sales will automatically produce cheap houses. Developers are also adding fewer units, limiting the inventory that would normally create stronger price competition.
The latest DANE increase fits the same picture: house prices climbed another 3.68% during the quarter even while Camacol was reporting weaker activity across the new-build market.
Is buying a used house much cheaper than buying new in Colombia?
Used housing can be dramatically cheaper in Colombia, especially in Medellín, which makes renovation worth considering when the underlying house is sound.
Bancolombia's comparison of active listings found used Bogotá housing around COP 6.4 million per square meter versus COP 7.8 million for new properties. That is roughly a 22% premium for new housing.
Medellín's gap is far larger. Used properties were around COP 6.9 million per square meter, while new housing reached COP 10.3 million, almost 50% higher.
For a 120-square-meter property, the raw difference would be roughly COP 168 million in Bogotá and COP 408 million in Medellín. Houses cannot be valued perfectly this way because lot size matters, but the size of the gap gives an older-property buyer a meaningful renovation budget.
This is also where chasing the absolute cheapest house can backfire. An older home with clear title, a useful lot and COP 100 million of cosmetic work may still be attractive against a new property costing several hundred million pesos more. Serious structural problems, illegal extensions or complicated ownership can wipe out that advantage quickly.
The used market currently deserves more attention than it gets, particularly in Medellín where the new-build premium has become difficult to ignore.
| City | Used median | New median | New-property premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bogotá | COP 6.4m/m² | COP 7.8m/m² | ~22% |
| Medellín | COP 6.9m/m² | COP 10.3m/m² | ~49% |
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Has Colombia become more expensive for buyers with dollars?
Yes. Colombia currently feels much more expensive to dollar-funded property buyers because the peso has strengthened substantially compared with the weaker exchange rates many foreigners became used to.
The current exchange rate is around COP 3,200 per U.S. dollar. During periods when the dollar traded around COP 4,000, the same Colombian house looked dramatically cheaper to an overseas buyer.
Take a COP 800 million property. At COP 4,000 per dollar, its dollar price is $200,000. At COP 3,200, the same unchanged house costs $250,000.
That is a 25% increase in the dollar purchase price without the seller raising the peso price at all.
Currency deserves much more attention than it usually gets in foreign discussions about Colombian real estate. As seen above, DANE is simultaneously reporting rising local house prices. A foreign buyer can currently face both effects at once: more pesos for the property and fewer pesos for each dollar.
Anyone remembering Colombia mainly from its very weak-peso periods will probably find houses less cheap than expected.
| House price in COP | At COP 4,000/USD | At COP 3,200/USD | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| COP 300m | $75k | $93.8k | +25% |
| COP 500m | $125k | $156.3k | +25% |
| COP 800m | $200k | $250k | +25% |
| COP 1bn | $250k | $312.5k | +25% |
Is Colombia still cheap for foreign property buyers?
Colombia is still cheap compared with many wealthy-country property markets, but prime Colombian real estate has moved far beyond the bargain prices foreigners often associate with the country.
A $200,000–$300,000 budget remains meaningful in Colombia. It can buy a substantial property in secondary cities and gives access to large parts of Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena, depending on the neighborhood and property type.
That looks inexpensive to someone comparing Colombia with Miami, Toronto, London or central Madrid. The comparison looks very different from a Colombian salary.
The current minimum monthly wage is COP 1,750,905. A COP 800 million house therefore equals roughly 457 monthly minimum wages, or more than 38 years of gross minimum-wage earnings before spending anything on food, rent, transport or taxes.
Even COP 300 million equals more than 14 years of the current minimum wage.
So foreign buyers can reasonably call Colombia cheap while local buyers struggle with affordability. They are looking at the same houses through completely different income and currency bases.
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How expensive is a Colombian mortgage right now?
Financing a Colombian house remains expensive today, so a locally financed buyer can experience a very different market from someone paying cash.
Mortgage conditions have remained relatively restrictive even as Colombia moved away from the highest interest-rate environment of the previous cycle. Banco de la República has pointed out that mortgage rates stopped falling in tandem with the policy rate and became more closely linked to longer-term government borrowing costs.
Using a mortgage rate around 12.8% effective annually as a simple illustration, financing 70% of a COP 500 million house over 20 years produces a monthly payment close to COP 3.9 million.
For a COP 800 million house, the same assumptions push the payment above COP 6 million. A COP 1.2 billion property reaches roughly COP 9.3 million per month.
Those amounts help explain why Colombian house prices can look reasonable to a foreign cash buyer while remaining difficult for domestic households. The sticker price is only one side of affordability; borrowing several hundred million pesos changes the calculation completely.
Actual mortgage offers vary by bank, borrower, loan structure and whether the credit is denominated in pesos or UVR, so these figures are illustrations rather than quotes.
| House price | 30% down payment | 70% mortgage | Approx. 20-year payment at 12.8% EA |
|---|---|---|---|
| COP 300m | COP 90m | COP 210m | COP 2.3m/month |
| COP 500m | COP 150m | COP 350m | COP 3.9m/month |
| COP 800m | COP 240m | COP 560m | COP 6.2m/month |
| COP 1.2bn | COP 360m | COP 840m | COP 9.3m/month |
How much extra should you budget when buying a house in Colombia?
A Colombian buyer should keep several percentage points of the purchase price outside the agreed house price for transaction costs, legal work and immediate property expenses.
The final amount varies because notarial charges, registration costs, withholding taxes and contractual allocations are split differently depending on the transaction. Colombia also updates notarial and registration tariffs periodically, so old online closing-cost calculators can become stale.
A buyer also needs to think beyond government charges. Title review, certificates, legal assistance, bank valuation fees, mortgage expenses, repairs, furniture and any work discovered during due diligence can add meaningful amounts.
For a COP 800 million purchase, arriving with exactly COP 800 million available leaves no margin for any of those costs. Keeping a separate reserve is much safer than stretching the property price to the maximum possible budget.
This is especially important with houses because problems involving extensions, boundaries, lot records and past construction can be more complicated than they are with a standard apartment.
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What house budget makes sense in Colombia now?
For a serious nationwide house search today, COP 500–800 million is a useful middle budget, while COP 800 million–1.5 billion is more realistic for buyers targeting better parts of Bogotá and Medellín.
That range comes from looking across the market rather than relying on one headline average. Colombia's current advertised house median is around COP 820 million. Manizales sits closer to COP 680 million. Medellín is around COP 1.2 billion, while Cartagena reaches roughly COP 1.34 billion.
The affordable-housing benchmarks sit much lower, around COP 236–263 million depending on the applicable VIS ceiling. COP 300 million remains a genuine property budget, but it is close to the affordable end of the formal market.
COP 500 million is where the search becomes much easier nationally. At COP 800 million, buyers can compare a wide range of good properties. Around COP 1 billion, the budget is strong almost everywhere, although prime Medellín and Cartagena can still make it feel surprisingly ordinary.
For buyers specifically targeting the neighborhoods most popular with foreigners, the upper half of these ranges is the more realistic place to start.
| Buyer budget | What it means in Colombia now |
|---|---|
| Under COP 300m | Possible, with significant location or property compromises |
| COP 300–500m | Real lower-middle and middle house market |
| COP 500–800m | Strong nationwide search budget |
| COP 800m–1.2bn | Good buying power in major cities |
| COP 1.2–2bn | Premium across much of Colombia |
| COP 2bn+ | Luxury in most markets, although not every prime micro-market |
So how much does a house in Colombia really cost?
A realistic answer today is around COP 500 million to COP 1 billion for a comfortable house in much of urban Colombia, with roughly COP 800 million serving as a useful national benchmark rather than a universal price.
The evidence gives us a much clearer answer than the old idea that Colombian houses are simply "cheap." Current asking data put the national house median near $257,000. Manizales remains closer to $212,000, while Medellín approaches $382,000 and Cartagena roughly $420,000.
Budget matters differently depending on where we look. Around $100,000 can still buy a house, particularly outside expensive districts. Around $150,000 creates considerably more options. At $250,000, a buyer can search seriously across much of the country. For desirable houses in the Colombian markets foreigners tend to target most, $300,000–$400,000 is increasingly a normal budget rather than an extravagant one.
The fresh data also make the direction fairly clear. DANE's latest release shows new-house prices rising 3.68% in one quarter. Camacol simultaneously reports housing starts down 19.6% in the first half, which keeps new supply tight. Dollar buyers are also receiving fewer pesos than during the weak-currency periods that shaped Colombia's bargain-market reputation.
Houses in Colombia are still relatively affordable internationally, but the country is no longer uniformly cheap. Anyone expecting a good house in Bogotá, Medellín or Cartagena for $50,000–$100,000 is working from an outdated picture of the market.
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OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis answers how much a house in Colombia costs by separating a national headline price into the factors that actually change what a buyer pays: city, neighborhood, house versus apartment inventory, new versus used property, current price direction, supply, financing, currency and transaction costs.
To understand what buyers are encountering in the market now, we use active-listing data as the starting point. TuLugar provides the main national house benchmark as well as city-level evidence for Medellín, Cartagena, Manizales, Armenia and Barranquilla. We focus on medians rather than simple averages where possible because a relatively small number of very large or luxury houses can distort citywide figures.
Listing prices are treated as asking prices, not completed transaction prices. They are useful for showing the level at which sellers currently position properties and for comparing cities, but they do not tell us that every house will ultimately sell at the advertised amount.
We use DANE's New Housing Price Index to test the direction of the market rather than inferring price growth from listings alone. Its latest data provide the official quarterly changes for new housing, including separate figures for houses and apartments.
Supply and demand are assessed with Banco de la República and Camacol data. Banco de la República provides the broader institutional view of sales, inventories, housing starts and market conditions, while Camacol's first-half figures provide the latest changes in new-home sales, launches and construction starts.
Bancolombia's Tu360 Inmobiliario analysis is used for the new-versus-used comparisons in Bogotá and Medellín. Those per-square-meter figures are not treated as direct house valuations because houses also carry land and lot value, but they give a useful indication of how large the new-build premium has become.
Affordability is tested against Colombia's official VIS and VIP framework and the 2026 minimum wage. Mortgage examples are illustrative calculations based on current housing-credit conditions rather than individual bank quotes. Banco de la República's work on mortgage-rate dynamics and Bancolombia's current housing-credit information provide the financing context.
For foreign buyers, we also include the exchange-rate effect because a house can become substantially more expensive in dollars even when its peso asking price does not move. Banco de la República's TRM framework is the reference for this part of the analysis.
Purchase costs are treated separately from the advertised property price. The Superintendencia de Notariado y Registro's current notarial and registration tariffs provide the official framework, while legal review, valuation, financing, repairs and other property-specific expenses are considered additional buyer reserves rather than part of the house price itself.
Key sources used for this analysis include: TuLugar's Colombia market data, TuLugar's Medellín market data, TuLugar's Cartagena market data, TuLugar's Manizales market data, TuLugar's Armenia market data, TuLugar's Barranquilla market data, DANE's New Housing Price Index, Bancolombia's new-versus-used housing analysis, Banco de la República's real-estate market analysis, Camacol's new-housing market data, Banco de la República on mortgage-rate dynamics, Bancolombia's current mortgage information, MinVivienda's VIS and VIP definitions, SUIN-Juriscol's 2026 minimum-wage decree, Banco de la República's TRM reference, Superintendencia de Notariado y Registro's notarial tariffs, and its current registration tariffs.
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