Is Airbnb still worth it in Mexico City now?

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Did Airbnb in Mexico City suddenly become a worse investment?

Yes. Airbnb in Mexico City still has plenty of guests, but buying an apartment specifically for short stays is clearly harder to justify now than it was a few years ago.

The biggest change comes from regulation. Mexico City now requires hosts and properties offering “Estancia Turística Eventual” to be registered, and the Tourism Law says a residential property cannot renew its registration if it was occupied for more than 50% of the nights in the year. Properties that cross that threshold can register again after one year, while owners wanting to operate for longer periods have to look at the commercial-establishment framework.

This is no longer a rule investors can comfortably shrug off as unfinished policy. Mexico City has been building the registration system needed to track hosts and properties, and a federal court ruling published this year reinforced the legal framework around these provisions.

At the same time, Airbnb demand remains surprisingly healthy. AirDNA’s latest completed-month data shows 26,476 active short-term rentals in Mexico City, 64% occupancy and an average nightly rate of $89. Occupancy is up 15.4% year over year.

That creates an awkward mismatch for anyone buying today. The market can currently support occupancy well above 50%, while the normal residential-host regime is designed to stop owners from operating indefinitely at those levels.

Mexico City Airbnb metric	Latest level	YoY change	What it tells us
Active listings	26,476	-25.1%	Much less active supply
Occupancy	64%	+15.4%	Guest demand remains strong
Average nightly rate	$89	+3.2%	Prices are rising slowly
RevPAR	$57	+18.7%	Remaining listings are earning more per available night

Is Mexico City’s 50% Airbnb limit actually being enforced now?

We would treat Mexico City’s 50% Airbnb limit as a real investment constraint today, even though enforcement is still developing.

The rule itself is straightforward. Article 61 Sexies of Mexico City’s Tourism Law says registration will not be renewed for a residential property that records occupancy during more than 50% of the nights in a year.

That is roughly 182 nights.

There has been legal resistance. Airbnb filed an amparo challenging parts of the city's short-term-rental rules, and political attempts to change the occupancy provision have also appeared. A proposal listed by the Mexico City Congress, for example, seeks to repeal the 50% paragraph.

But investors cannot sensibly price a property today on the assumption that those attempts will succeed.

The more important recent development came from the federal courts. A jurisprudential ruling published this year dealt with the Mexico City provisions governing platform accommodation, while another judicial decision concerning the occupancy restriction emphasized the public-interest objectives behind the rules, including housing availability, land use and the effects of gentrification.

There is still legal movement around the system. There is much less justification, however, for underwriting a 70% or 80% annual occupancy model and assuming the city will never apply its own rule.

For a new purchase, we would build the base case around no more than roughly half the year in short stays.

Can Mexico City Airbnbs still make good money today?

Yes, but the average Mexico City Airbnb numbers look better than what a new investor should automatically expect to reproduce.

AirDNA currently puts average annual short-term-rental revenue at about $19,500 per active listing. Average occupancy is 64%, average nightly rate is $89 and RevPAR is $57.

Those numbers are genuinely strong. The problem appears when we compare them with the city's occupancy rule.

At $89 per night, 182 booked nights produce about $16,200 in gross accommodation revenue. That is roughly $3,300 below AirDNA's current average annual revenue figure, before cleaning, utilities, furnishings, maintenance, platform costs, taxes and management.

A better apartment can make the numbers work by charging more rather than by filling more nights. At a $120 nightly rate, 182 nights produce $21,840. At $150, gross revenue reaches $27,300.

So the type of property matters more now. An average one-bedroom apartment cannot rely on simply keeping the calendar full. A genuinely attractive apartment with a terrace, strong design, good air conditioning, quiet bedrooms or an exceptional location has a better chance of generating enough revenue from fewer nights.

Average nightly rate	150 nights	170 nights	182 nights	Gross revenue at 182 nights
$70	$10,500	$11,900	$12,740	$12,740
$89	$13,350	$15,130	$16,198	$16,198
$120	$18,000	$20,400	$21,840	$21,840
$150	$22,500	$25,500	$27,300	$27,300
$200	$30,000	$34,000	$36,400	$36,400

Why are there fewer Airbnbs in Mexico City now?

Mexico City's Airbnb supply has fallen sharply while the properties that remain are filling more nights, so this looks much more like a market reshuffle than tourists abandoning Airbnb.

AirDNA currently tracks 26,476 active short-term rentals, down 25.1% from a year earlier. Over the same period, occupancy rose 15.4% and RevPAR increased 18.7%.

If Airbnb demand were collapsing, we would expect fewer listings alongside weak occupancy or falling prices. Instead, the remaining inventory is performing better.

There are several possible reasons. Some owners will have sold properties, moved back into them or switched platforms. Regulation is also making casual or poorly structured hosting less attractive.

The clearest change, though, appears in how listings are being offered. AirDNA says 51.9% of tracked Mexico City listings now require stays of 30 nights or more. Another 60.8% of listings are advertised as available for 271 to 365 nights a year, showing how messy the transition currently is: hosts may keep properties broadly available while changing the kind of booking they want.

The market is adapting rather than disappearing.

And that adaptation is increasingly pushing Mexico City hosts toward longer stays.

Are 30-day rentals replacing traditional Airbnb in Mexico City?

They are becoming a huge part of the market. More than half of Mexico City listings tracked by AirDNA currently require stays of at least 30 nights.

That 51.9% share is striking because traditional short Airbnb stays are much smaller individually: 28.2% of listings have a two-night minimum, 11% require three nights, 5.1% require four to six nights and just 2.8% sit between seven and 29 nights.

A 30-day rental is a completely different business from hosting tourists for weekends.

Turnover falls. Cleaning happens less often. Guest messaging drops. Furniture gets less punishment. Owners also gain access to people staying in Mexico City for work assignments, temporary relocations, extended visits, remote work, studies or a few months between permanent homes.

That fits Mexico City unusually well because the city has demand far beyond tourism.

We should be careful with the legal interpretation. A 30-day minimum by itself does not automatically tell us which tourism, housing, tax or commercial rules apply to every property. Owners still need to check how their specific arrangement is classified.

Commercially, though, the direction is hard to miss. A large part of Mexico City's furnished-rental market is already moving away from the classic three-night Airbnb model.

Are tourists still coming to Mexico City in large numbers?

Yes. Mexico City's tourism demand is currently strong enough that a lack of visitors should not be the main reason to reject an Airbnb investment.

Mexico City's Tourism Ministry says the capital received 15.6 million tourists in 2025 and 62.3 million visitors overall. Hotel occupancy averaged 67.9%, while tourism generated roughly MXN 159 billion in economic activity.

Those numbers are useful because Mexico City is not dependent on one short high season. The city draws international leisure travelers, domestic tourists, business visitors, people visiting friends and relatives, concert crowds and major-event traffic throughout the year.

That diversity makes Mexico City structurally different from a resort market that can go quiet for several months.

The latest Airbnb data fits the same picture. Despite a large drop in active short-term-rental supply, occupancy has climbed rather than fallen.

Guests are still there. The harder question is whether a buyer can turn that demand into enough legally sustainable revenue to justify an expensive apartment.

Did the World Cup make Mexico City Airbnb owners much richer?

The World Cup helped Mexico City short-term rentals, but it was far less spectacular than the pre-tournament hype suggested.

This is one of the more useful recent examples because we now have evidence from both before and after the tournament.

Before the games, reservations for World Cup dates in Mexico City were running 40.8% above the comparable period a year earlier, according to AirDNA figures reported by El Economista. Yet occupancy at that stage was only around 43%. Local operators were already reporting that some hosts had set unrealistic prices and later had to cut them.

After the tournament, AirDNA calculated that short-term rentals across Mexico generated $78.8 million during the World Cup, up $30.6 million from the same period a year earlier.

But the extra money came largely from higher nightly prices rather than the enormous influx of additional guests many owners had expected.

That is a useful lesson for Mexico City Airbnb investors. Big events such as Formula 1, Día de Muertos, concerts and the World Cup can create excellent pricing opportunities. They should improve a property's annual numbers rather than carry them.

An apartment bought at a bad price does not become a good investment because five or ten nights per year can suddenly be sold at extraordinary rates.

Is Roma Norte still good for Airbnb?

Roma Norte is still one of Mexico City's easiest neighborhoods to rent to visitors, but today's property prices leave much less room for a mediocre Airbnb.

Recent Propiedades.com data puts the average apartment asking price in Roma Norte at roughly MXN 5.12 million, with a median size of 91 square metres and a median asking price around MXN 56,200 per square metre.

Prices are also moving. The portal calculates that the average asking price rose about 11% between early 2025 and now.

Roma Norte has another advantage that Airbnb spreadsheets sometimes underplay: owners can usually fall back on a conventional rental market. The same portal currently shows average apartment rents around MXN 24,600 per month and more than 500 active rental listings in the neighborhood.

That gives us a useful reality check.

An Airbnb in Roma Norte has to beat an alternative where an owner can rent the apartment for roughly MXN 295,000 a year before expenses without managing hundreds of guest messages, cleanings and check-ins.

The neighborhood still works particularly well for distinctive apartments that can command premium nightly rates. But the address by itself is not enough anymore.

Roma Norte measure	Current level	What it means for an owner
Average apartment asking price	MXN 5.12m	High entry price
Median size	91 m²	Flexible for several rental strategies
Median asking price	MXN 56,200/m²	Prime central-city pricing
Average apartment rent	MXN 24,600/month	Strong long-term fallback
Active rental listings	519	Deep conventional rental market

Is Condesa actually better than Roma Norte for Airbnb?

Condesa can generate higher nightly prices, but investors currently pay so much more to get into the neighborhood that the Airbnb advantage can disappear quickly.

Propiedades.com currently puts average apartment rent around MXN 29,500 a month in Condesa compared with approximately MXN 24,600 in Roma Norte.

So tenants appear willing to pay roughly 20% more.

The acquisition premium can be much larger depending on the apartment. Condesa also has larger typical units, with the portal reporting a median size around 110 square metres versus 91 square metres in Roma Norte.

For an Airbnb investor, the real question is what the extra purchase price buys.

If the Condesa property has a terrace, unusual architecture, several bedrooms, a quiet setting or another feature that lets it charge significantly more per night, paying the premium may make sense.

If the apartment looks almost identical to hundreds of other listings, its famous postcode will only take the economics so far.

We would choose the better property at the better basis over the more fashionable neighborhood almost every time.

Are investors overpaying for Mexico City's obvious Airbnb neighborhoods?

Quite often. Paying too much for the apartment can hurt the return far more than getting the Airbnb nightly rate slightly wrong.

Consider the scale.

An owner who manages to increase the nightly rate by $10 across 170 booked nights creates another $1,700 in annual gross revenue.

Meanwhile, paying an extra MXN 1 million for an apartment because it sits on the right Roma Norte street adds a much larger amount to the investment upfront.

This becomes even more important with restricted short-stay nights. Owners have less ability to compensate for an expensive purchase simply by pushing occupancy from 60% to 75%.

Property selection now beats postcode collecting.

A slightly less famous part of Roma, Juárez, Escandón or another well-connected central area can sometimes produce better economics if visitors still want the location and the acquisition price is meaningfully lower.

The best deal is increasingly the apartment tourists like but other Airbnb investors have not already bid into an obvious premium.

Can a normal long-term rental beat Airbnb in Mexico City now?

Yes. In plenty of Mexico City apartments, conventional renting can beat Airbnb once we compare net income instead of headline booking revenue.

The short-term rental has obvious revenue advantages when nightly pricing is strong. But it comes with furniture, linens, electricity, internet, supplies, cleaning coordination, higher wear, platform costs, pricing work and potentially a management fee.

A normal tenant removes much of that workload.

There is also a crucial difference in usable time. A conventional tenant can pay rent for twelve months. An owner trying to stay comfortably inside Mexico City's residential short-stay rules has to think very differently about annual occupancy.

That does not automatically make long-term renting more profitable. A great Airbnb can still earn much more.

But if an apartment produces attractive conventional rent already, the Airbnb premium needs to be large enough to justify everything the owner is taking on.

An Airbnb spreadsheet showing an 8% gross yield is much less exciting when the same apartment can generate around 6% to 7% gross with one tenant and dramatically less work.

Rental strategy	Revenue upside	Owner workload	Regulatory exposure	Predictability
Traditional Airbnb	Highest if ADR is strong	High	High	Medium
Furnished 30–90 day stays	High	Medium	Depends on structure	Medium-high
Conventional lease	Lower ceiling	Low	Lower	High
Flexible property using several strategies	High	Medium	Manageable if structured properly	High

Can you still build a portfolio of Airbnbs in Mexico City?

You can, but Mexico City now makes it much harder to treat ten residential apartments like ten independent weekend Airbnbs.

The Tourism Law requires properties to be individually registered. Once an operator moves beyond three properties, additional commercial requirements come into play from the fourth property, including documentation tied to commercial establishments and compatible land use.

That changes the economics of scale.

Running one very good apartment as a furnished rental can still be relatively straightforward. Building a portfolio starts looking much more like operating an accommodation company.

That means more compliance, more attention to land use and less room for the informal model where an investor simply buys units in several condominiums and uploads them to Airbnb.

Professional operators can still make money in Mexico City. They increasingly need a professional structure too.

For investors attracted to Airbnb because it once looked easier than running a hotel, that distinction matters.

Can a condo building stop an Airbnb in Mexico City?

A condominium can become a serious obstacle for a Mexico City Airbnb, so the building now deserves almost as much due diligence as the apartment itself.

Mexico City's rules require hosts to provide property documentation, tax information and other details when registering. For condominium properties, the framework also involves notifying the condominium assembly about the tourist-accommodation activity.

Even when a building has not outright prohibited short stays, repeated complaints, access-control disputes, noise problems and opposition from permanent residents can make an otherwise attractive apartment painful to operate.

This risk is easy to underestimate when buying.

A unit may photograph perfectly, sit five minutes from Parque México and show excellent projected revenue on an Airbnb calculator. None of that solves a hostile building.

These days, we would check the condominium regulations, assembly decisions and history of short-term rentals before treating projected Airbnb income as part of the property's value.

A clean building situation can be worth paying for.

Are Airbnb taxes killing the Mexico City investment case?

No. Mexico City's Airbnb taxes take money out of the economics, but they are not the main reason the investment has become harder.

Airbnb's current Mexico tax guidance says income earned through the platform can create obligations for income tax, VAT and lodging tax. The platform also explains that guests booking Mexico City accommodation can face 16% VAT plus a lodging-services tax of roughly 3% to 5%, depending on the type of accommodation.

For Mexico City reservations, Airbnb collects and remits the lodging tax through the platform.

The guest ultimately cares about the checkout total. A $100 apartment can look much less cheap after cleaning charges and applicable taxes are added, particularly when nearby hotels are competing aggressively.

Owners also have to compare revenue after tax and operating expenses rather than treating the displayed nightly rate as income.

Still, taxes alone do not change our conclusion.

The tougher problem is paying several million pesos for an apartment whose most aggressive short-term-rental strategy may conflict with the direction of local regulation.

Does Mexico City's Airbnb supply drop make today's remaining listings more valuable?

For good listings, probably yes, but mostly because competition has fallen rather than because guests suddenly accept much higher prices.

AirDNA's latest numbers show the pattern clearly. Active supply is down 25.1% year over year, while occupancy is up 15.4% and RevPAR has climbed 18.7%.

Nightly rates, however, rose only 3.2%.

So most of the recent improvement came from filling available properties more often, not from a huge jump in what each guest pays per night.

That distinction is important under Mexico City's current rules.

Higher ADR is especially valuable because an owner earns more from each allowed night. Higher occupancy has a natural regulatory limit for residential short stays.

Today's 64% market occupancy therefore tells us that demand is healthy. It does not mean a new buyer should build a long-term business plan around 64% annual short-stay occupancy.

The next phase of this market will depend much more on which properties can keep raising the amount earned per booking.

What kind of Mexico City Airbnb is still worth buying now?

A Mexico City Airbnb still looks attractive when the property can make money under several rental strategies rather than needing nonstop short stays to survive.

We would want an apartment that visitors clearly prefer over generic alternatives, because higher nightly pricing is increasingly valuable. Location still matters, but so do quieter bedrooms, natural light, air conditioning, an elevator where appropriate, attractive outdoor space, good design and enough room for guests staying several weeks.

The acquisition price has to work too.

Then comes the fallback test. Could the apartment rent conventionally at a respectable return? Is there genuine demand for furnished one- to three-month stays? Would the property still make financial sense if short-term rules tighten again?

That is where the stronger investments separate themselves.

A property requiring 70% Airbnb occupancy just to reach an acceptable return is a fragile bet today.

An apartment that already works as a normal rental and becomes more profitable through furnished medium-term or carefully selected short stays gives the owner far more options.

So is Airbnb still worth it in Mexico City now?

Yes, selectively. Airbnb in Mexico City is still worth it for certain properties, but buying an average residential apartment purely to run it at high short-term occupancy no longer looks like a particularly good default investment.

Tourism is healthy. The latest completed market data still shows 64% occupancy across 26,476 short-term rentals, and Mexico City attracted 15.6 million tourists last year. Guests have clearly not disappeared.

Regulation has changed the calculation. A 50% annual occupancy threshold now sits directly against a market that is capable of filling substantially more nights, while registration and legal scrutiny have become much harder to ignore.

The market itself is already adjusting. As seen above, 51.9% of AirDNA's tracked listings now require stays of 30 nights or longer. That is too large to dismiss as a niche behavior.

For an existing owner who bought cheaply years ago, Airbnb can still be very profitable. For somebody buying now, we would be much stricter.

The strongest purchase is an apartment with good long-term rental economics, genuine demand for furnished medium-term stays and enough appeal to command high Airbnb rates when short stays make sense.

If the entire deal only works because a spreadsheet assumes the apartment will be occupied by Airbnb guests 250 nights every year, we would pass.

Mexico City investment idea	Our view today	Main reason
Average condo targeting 70%+ short-stay occupancy	Weak	Too dependent on a regulatory assumption
Expensive Roma or Condesa unit bought mainly for the address	Weak	Entry price can swallow the Airbnb premium
Distinctive apartment capable of high nightly rates	Attractive at the right price	Makes more from fewer booked nights
Furnished property targeting 30–90 day stays	Increasingly attractive	Fits the direction of the market
Apartment that also works well as a normal rental	Strongest risk-adjusted case	Owner has a credible fallback
Existing Airbnb bought at a low historical price	Often attractive	Much easier return equation than buying today

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THE LATINVESTOR

A team specialized in real estate investing in LATAM countries

We are a team of financial experts, legal professionals, developers, and local real estate specialists dedicated to helping people like you avoid mistakes when investing in real estate in a foreign place, particularly in Mexico City. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can check our presentation page.