Is Playa Salguero still a good place to buy property?

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Why is Playa Salguero still attracting so many property buyers?

Playa Salguero is still attracting buyers because Santa Marta is growing around it, and developers clearly still believe people will pay to stay or live there.

The amount of construction tells us how strong that conviction remains. Huayra is selling apartasuites from roughly COP 338 million and building a large commercial component alongside the residential project. Puntamar is marketing hundreds of beachfront residences with tourist permission and lock-off layouts. Other projects around Salguero and the neighboring Pozos Colorados corridor are targeting essentially the same mix of vacation-home buyers, Airbnb investors and second-home owners.

That development is happening alongside real tourism growth. Pro Santa Marta, using Migración Colombia data, counted 58,648 foreign visitors who came to Santa Marta for tourism in 2025, up 19% from the previous year. The city's airport was already moving almost 1.93 million passengers in the first half of that year.

The airport is now being expanded as well. The Agencia Nacional de Infraestructura says the COP 75 billion project will take annual capacity from 3.6 million to 5.8 million passengers. Construction began in late 2025 and is scheduled to continue into 2027. ANI's latest management report says the airport handled more than 3.8 million passengers in 2025, which explains why additional capacity is already needed.

Playa Salguero therefore has real demand behind its development boom. The catch is that investors have noticed, so buyers today face far more competition than those who entered before Salguero became an obvious tourism-investment area.

Is Playa Salguero actually becoming a better place to live?

Yes, Playa Salguero is becoming easier to live in, although it still feels more like a growing beach district than a fully mature neighborhood.

Older Salguero was easy to understand: newer towers, a relatively quiet beach and quick access to El Rodadero, but much less street-level activity than established parts of Santa Marta.

That is changing. Huayra is planning a large commercial zone directly within the project. Its current plans include retail alongside pools, coworking, sports and leisure facilities. Puntamar is combining housing with a beach club, restaurant, spa, coworking and other services. Several recent developments use the same model.

Part of that amenity boom reflects a real weakness in the neighborhood. Developers know that many residents and tourists still expect to find much of what they need inside their building rather than by walking out onto a lively commercial street.

Still, more residents and commercial space should gradually make Salguero less dependent on El Rodadero. The trade-off is higher administration costs in buildings packed with pools, rooftops, gyms and resort-style common areas.

Is Playa Salguero still cheap enough to be interesting?

Playa Salguero can still be bought at reasonable prices, but the days when the whole neighborhood looked obviously cheap are gone.

The easiest way to see the change is to compare current projects. Huayra currently advertises apartasuites from around COP 338 million, with its smallest layouts beginning around 38 m². Puntamar advertises beachfront units from roughly COP 365 million, with layouts starting below 30 m².

At those entry prices, a buyer can still get into a relatively new Santa Marta beach neighborhood for well below the cost of premium Caribbean property in Cartagena.

The problem appears higher up the market. Larger, first-line and more luxurious Salguero projects can quickly move beyond COP 600 million and, for bigger units, above COP 1 billion. Once prices reach that level, “Santa Marta is cheaper than Cartagena” stops being enough of an argument.

We also found a large spread between existing apartments and newly launched stock. That is exactly what we would expect in a neighborhood going through a construction boom: developers are selling new design, amenities and payment plans, while older owners may be competing primarily on price.

This is where some of the better opportunities sit today. Instead of assuming that new construction deserves a premium, we would compare it directly with completed apartments nearby. If an older building offers the same beach access, view and tourist permissions at a substantially lower price, the new lobby and rooftop need to justify the difference.

Is Playa Salguero building too many apartments now?

Playa Salguero is getting crowded with new apartments, and this is currently the biggest reason to stop treating every new launch as an obvious investment.

Camacol Magdalena's 2025 market report gives us the broader picture. The department finished that year with 9,996 homes under construction, up 11% from 8,971 a year earlier and the highest level recorded in the local series.

More revealingly, the expensive end of the market was growing much faster. Homes priced from roughly COP 875 million upward increased from 1,385 units under construction to 2,133 in a single year, a 54% jump. Meanwhile, the COP 326 million to COP 875 million bracket already accounted for 7,319 units, or roughly 73% of all homes being built.

Playa Salguero sits right inside the price ranges receiving most of that investment.

The risk appears when several buildings target the same person with almost the same product: a small modern apartment, tourist permission, swimming pool, coworking, gym, rooftop and proximity to the sea.

Puntamar alone advertises hundreds of residences. Huayra adds another major project. Several nearby developments are chasing a similar investor and guest.

When many apartments offer nearly the same thing, owners end up competing through price, reviews and management. An unobstructed sea view, a useful lock-off layout, a large terrace or a much lower purchase price therefore matters much more today.

Is Santa Marta tourism growing fast enough for all these Playa Salguero apartments?

Santa Marta tourism is growing fast, but we would not assume it can effortlessly fill every apartment currently being built in Playa Salguero.

Demand is clearly moving in the right direction. According to Pro Santa Marta's analysis of Migración Colombia data, Santa Marta received visitors from 134 countries in 2025 and counted 58,648 people who entered for tourism. That was 19% more than a year earlier.

Air traffic tells an even bigger story because domestic tourism matters far more to Santa Marta than foreign arrivals alone suggest. ANI says Simón Bolívar Airport handled more than 3.8 million passengers in 2025. The airport expansion currently under way will lift capacity to 5.8 million and add boarding, baggage and commercial space.

That is serious infrastructure being built around actual traffic rather than speculative tourism forecasts.

Even so, a city can receive more visitors while individual landlords make less money if accommodation supply grows faster. During the 2026 Fiesta del Mar, for example, Santa Marta reported more than 117,000 visitors while preliminary hotel occupancy was around 63%.

The airport also gives Salguero a practical advantage. The neighborhood sits on the same southern coastal corridor as Simón Bolívar Airport, making it convenient for weekend trips and short stays.

The tourism trend is strong. It just does not justify any purchase price.

Is Playa Salguero still a good Airbnb area?

Playa Salguero is still a good Airbnb area, but the easy-money version of the Airbnb story looks much weaker these days.

The neighborhood has exactly the characteristics short-stay guests tend to search for: newer buildings, pools, sea views, beach access, proximity to the airport and enough distance from El Rodadero to feel quieter.

Developers have clearly designed around that demand. Puntamar advertises tourist permission and lock-off layouts. Huayra presents its apartasuites as a vacation-rental product. Other recent developments make tourist operation a central part of the sales pitch.

That also means many owners are buying for exactly the same reason.

The strongest Salguero rentals should therefore have something guests notice immediately in a listing: a proper ocean view, direct beachfront location, excellent balcony, enough bedrooms for families, unusually good design or a building with better reviews and management than its neighbors.

A 35 m² apartment with a pool and gym is far less special than it sounded five years ago.

We would also be skeptical of yield projections based on multiplying a high-season nightly rate by an optimistic occupancy assumption. Cleaning, management, platform charges, utilities, administration fees, maintenance, vacancy and furnishing replacements can remove a large share of headline revenue.

The deal should work under ordinary occupancy and ordinary nightly rates.

Can any Playa Salguero apartment legally be rented on Airbnb?

No, Playa Salguero's popularity with tourists does not give every apartment automatic permission to operate as a short-term rental.

Colombia requires tourist accommodation providers to comply with the Registro Nacional de Turismo rules. For apartments governed by propiedad horizontal, the Ministry of Commerce says the owner must declare that the building's regulations authorize the private units to provide tourist accommodation.

That makes the building rules one of the first documents we would read before buying.

This point is particularly important in Salguero because the neighborhood mixes traditional residential buildings with projects specifically designed and marketed for tourism. Two apartments across the street from each other can therefore have very different rental rights.

A broker saying “Airbnb is allowed here” is not enough. We would want the actual reglamento de propiedad horizontal, confirmation that tourist accommodation is permitted, the building's guest rules and the relevant RNT documentation.

Projects launched explicitly with tourist permission remove part of that uncertainty, although they create a different problem: many of the neighbors may also become direct rental competitors.

Has Playa Salguero's erosion problem been fixed, and is beachfront still worth the premium?

No, Playa Salguero still has a real coastal-erosion problem, so beachfront property can justify a premium only when the building and coastal exposure are strong enough to deserve it.

The historical numbers are severe. Technical studies presented by the Santa Marta government found that one affected section lost around 20 metres of beach between 2014 and 2019, roughly four metres a year during that period. Earlier INVEMAR work found that retreat could reach about five metres a year in some sections and periods.

The causes are not limited to rising seas. Studies cited by the district point to changes in sediment coming from the Gaira River, coastal construction, human alterations and wave dynamics.

Santa Marta did intervene. Construction of two groynes began in 2023, and the latest IDEAM environmental assessment of the beach found an increase in beach width and elevation between late 2023 and 2024. IDEAM linked that improvement to sediment being retained by the new coastal structure and to additional fill material.

Then the issue returned to official emergency planning. At the end of 2025, Santa Marta declared a public calamity specifically to deal with coastal erosion in Playa Salguero and Los Cocos.

Guests still value direct sea views, immediate beach access and balconies overlooking the Caribbean, so good first-line property can earn a real rental premium. But those buildings also sit closest to the area affected by erosion and face harsher salt exposure on façades, elevators, metalwork and air-conditioning equipment.

An apartment a few hundred metres inland can still benefit from Salguero's beach and tourism without carrying exactly the same physical exposure.

We would still buy beachfront in the right case, but only after reviewing the building's engineering history, insurance, maintenance record, administration finances and exact position relative to the erosion area.

Does Playa Salguero still have a water and sewer problem?

Yes, water reliability is still a current weakness in Playa Salguero, and the latest ESSMAR update makes that impossible to dismiss as an old Santa Marta story.

ESSMAR reported another electrical failure at the Rebombeo potable-water pumping station on August 30, 2026. Salguero was specifically named among the southern neighborhoods affected, alongside Gaira, El Rodadero, Pozos Colorados, Bello Horizonte and the airport corridor. The utility restored the station and said service would normalize progressively.

That follows other recent incidents. In 2025, ESSMAR reported a separate pump failure affecting Salguero and Gaira. Heavy rains also damaged water and wastewater pumping infrastructure around Santa Marta that year.

Salguero's sewer network has had its own problems. During a 2025 incident near Avenida Tamacá and Calle 29, CORPAMAG inspected overflowing sewage that ultimately reached a stormwater channel and discharged toward the Caribbean. ESSMAR later said inappropriate waste had obstructed the system and affected equipment at the EBAR Salguero wastewater pumping station before repairs restored service.

These events do not mean every Salguero building regularly runs out of water. They do mean building-level resilience matters.

A modern tower with large water tanks, well-maintained pumps and backup electricity may handle a municipal interruption with little inconvenience. We would therefore ask how much water the building can store, whether pumps have generator backup and how often tanker deliveries or serious interruptions have occurred recently.

Should we buy a new apartment or a resale in Playa Salguero now?

We currently prefer a well-priced resale in Playa Salguero over an expensive generic new apartment.

The advantage is evidence. In a completed building, we can see the actual sea view, hear the actual street noise, inspect the common areas and ask owners whether elevators, water pumps and administration work properly.

We can also see real monthly fees instead of estimates.

For an Airbnb purchase, an existing property gives us another advantage: rental history. We can compare actual occupancy, nightly rates, reviews and expenses rather than depending on a sales presentation built around projected returns.

That becomes especially valuable while so much new inventory is arriving.

New construction still wins when the price remains compelling versus completed apartments or when the project offers something difficult to find in older stock: a much better layout, true lock-off capability, outstanding first-line position or meaningfully stronger infrastructure.

We would be particularly careful with off-plan units sold mainly on expected appreciation before delivery. That strategy becomes much weaker when several nearby developers are delivering comparable apartments at the same time.

Is Playa Salguero better for rental income or price appreciation?

Playa Salguero currently makes more sense as a rental investment with potential appreciation than as a pure bet on rapidly rising property prices.

There are solid reasons to believe the area can become more valuable over a long holding period. Santa Marta is receiving more international tourists. Airport traffic has become large enough to justify a 60% capacity expansion. Developers are adding commercial space and better buildings to Salguero. More people are discovering the southern beach corridor.

Those factors should support property values.

Heavy supply makes the timing much less predictable.

As seen above, Magdalena reached a record 9,996 units under construction in 2025, and the most expensive segment grew particularly quickly. Salguero buyers are also competing with new developments in Pozos Colorados and other nearby coastal areas.

A property that already produces decent net income gives us time if prices remain flat while new supply is absorbed.

For that reason, our base case would use modest appreciation and conservative rental assumptions. Anything better becomes upside rather than something the deal needs in order to make sense.

Is Playa Salguero actually better than El Rodadero for property buyers?

Playa Salguero is better than El Rodadero for buyers who want newer buildings, quieter surroundings and a more resort-like product, while El Rodadero still wins on street life and established tourist infrastructure.

El Rodadero is dense, busy and already full of restaurants, shops, hotels, older apartment buildings and tourists. Guests can leave an apartment and immediately find things happening around them.

Playa Salguero is calmer. Its appeal comes more from the beach, modern towers, views and private amenities. Many buildings effectively function as small resorts.

That makes Salguero especially attractive to families, couples and visitors who want a modern apartment near the sea without staying in the busiest part of El Rodadero.

Some tourists will still prefer El Rodadero's density and convenience, so a newer Salguero building does not automatically earn more.

Salguero's edge is clearest when the property itself takes advantage of the neighborhood's strengths: quieter beachfront living, better views, newer common areas and easy access to the airport.

What kind of Playa Salguero apartment would we avoid today?

We would avoid an expensive, interchangeable investor apartment in Playa Salguero whose return only works under very optimistic Airbnb assumptions.

The weakest setup is usually a small unit in a large new development where dozens of owners bought the same floor plan for the same reason. Add high administration fees, no special view and aggressive developer pricing, and very little remains to distinguish one listing from another.

We would also avoid buying for Airbnb without reading the property-horizontal rules.

For beachfront property, we would walk away if the seller or developer could not provide a convincing answer on coastal exposure, building maintenance and insurance.

Infrastructure can kill an otherwise attractive deal too. A building with weak water storage or unreliable pumps is a much bigger problem in Salguero than a slightly dated kitchen.

The strongest purchases tend to combine a sensible entry price, legal tourist use where needed, strong building management, good water resilience and at least one characteristic that is difficult to copy.

So, is Playa Salguero still a good place to buy property?

Yes, Playa Salguero is still one of the more interesting places to buy property in Santa Marta, but we would be much pickier now than we would have been a few years ago.

The long-term case remains good. Santa Marta's international tourism is growing. Airport traffic has already reached levels that forced a major expansion. Playa Salguero continues to attract serious residential and commercial investment. The neighborhood itself is becoming more complete.

A few of the risks are also unusually clear now.

Construction is at record levels across Magdalena, giving renters and future buyers far more choice. Short-term-rental buildings are increasingly competing with other short-term-rental buildings. Water disruptions remain current, including the latest pumping-station failure affecting Salguero. Coastal erosion improved locally after protective works but still became serious enough for Santa Marta to declare another public calamity.

We would still buy in Playa Salguero for a five-to-ten-year hold if the apartment is priced sensibly, the building handles water interruptions well, short-term rentals are clearly permitted when needed and any direct coastal exposure has been properly investigated.

We would be much less interested in paying a large premium simply because a project is new, has a rooftop pool and uses the word “touristic” in its marketing.

Right now, the best value may be hiding between the obvious options: a strong resale or reasonably priced new unit close to the beach, with good management and some genuine advantage over the hundreds of similar apartments entering the market.

Playa Salguero is still a good place to buy. The neighborhood has simply become competitive enough that choosing the wrong apartment can matter more than choosing the right neighborhood.

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THE LATINVESTOR

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