Abandoned cities and young people without hope of home

Over the past two decades, the governments in power have committed themselves to building thousands of mass housing without planning and, most importantly, without taking into account the needs of families. As a result, they built thousands of rooms of only 25 to 40 meters on muddy, arid land or on mountains without considering transport routes, schools, parks, medical units, cultural and commercial centers. The only focus was to bring big business to construction companies.

Recently, Roman Mayer Falcon, head of the Secretariat of Land, Territory and Urban Development (Sedatu), pointed out that there are 650,000 abandoned houses across the country, many of which are drug trafficking centers and criminal shelters.

The federal official also said another 70,000 buildings are “disappearing” because they are uninhabitable housing units because they were built in dangerous areas such as hills or flood zones.

The logic behind the construction of these uninhabitable houses is purely commercial. Business groups such as Casas Arko, Homex, Su casita, Geo, Urbi, Metrofinanciera, Consorcio Ara, Vinte, Hogares Deesa, Marfil, Javer, etc., are the main beneficiaries of the governments of Vicente Fox, Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto.

Although the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador addressed the issue, it was ultimately abandoned.

Contrary to Sedatu’s data, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) estimates that there are 6 million 155 thousand abandoned houses in Mexico. The State of Mexico has 10% of the total, with 611 thousand 159, followed by Veracruz with 474 thousand, Jalisco with 451 thousand 590, Michoacán with 313 thousand 707 and Guanajuato with 313 thousand 437.

In 2020, the López Obrador government said it planned to renovate 175,000 of them by the end of its six-year term, which means an average of 119 houses per day need to be renovated through the abandoned housing regeneration program led by the National Institute of Workers’ Housing Fund (Infonavit) and the Secretariat of Land, Territory and Urban Development (Sedatu).

Last year, Román Meyer Falcón, the Minister of Agriculture, Territory and Urban Development, reported in front of the Chamber of Deputies that together with Infonavit they had restored around 70,000 abandoned houses. That is, less than half of what was expected.

Thousands of families forced by poverty to live in these small and dangerous spaces insist on using them as bedrooms, leaving at four in the morning and returning home from get off work at nine or ten in the evening.

But most are abandoned, accounting for 14% of the country’s housing stock, according to research from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, prompting a wave of property invasions.

Despite the continued failure of abandoned housing recovery schemes and the approval of the new General Law on Traffic and Road Safety (LGMSV) in 2022, only 12 states in the Republic have updated their regulatory frameworks.

In this context, the hopes of young Mexicans to have a decent home are impossible to achieve. On top of that, if we take into account the rise in bank interest rates, which is the main possibility of having money, it will naturally lead to more expensive and more difficult to obtain mortgages, making it difficult for young people to buy a home.

Furthermore, informality of work and low income of the general population, especially the youth, are decisive factors for banks not considering them for mortgage loans.

As of December, Inegi reported that there were nearly 61 million economically active people, of whom 1.6 million were unemployed; among them, young people as young as 15. The institute reported last year that half of the country’s 40 million employed people are young people aged 15 to 39, who earn up to twice the minimum wage, or 12,450 pesos per month.

Inmuebles 24 reports that in Mexico City, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment reaches 15,481 pesos, while the average cost of a house of the same size is 2 million 700,000 pesos.

Given the high cost of renting and selling homes, it is estimated that in the nation’s capital, 60% of 18 to 29-year-olds still live at home, with 30% opting for a roommate model to share rent and pay for services.

Faced with this reality, young Mexicans have zero chance of owning their own home, or even renting one, as interest rates rise and mortgages become more expensive and harder to obtain.

There is no doubt that millions of young Mexicans are excluded from the housing market. I can’t even live in one of the thousands of abandoned homes across the country because they have been taken over by organized crime.

By the way… One of the proposals of the next president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is to meet the housing needs of young people, promising to build up to 75,000 homes per year, create nearly 1 million jobs through construction, with a maximum income equivalent to 30% of wages, housing in a good location and with access to services, fair contract conditions for those with less income, quality building materials, freedom to choose where and how to live and the right to keep pets. We will see if it is realized or remains an unfulfilled project of López Obrador.