Buy a studio to rent? Years of rent worth a studio in 16 cities of Colombia (October 2026)
Machine-assisted English version of the Spanish original by Aptología. All figures are locked to the original (numbers are copied, not re-translated); if in doubt, the Spanish original prevails.
A study apartment in Barranquilla costs the same as 11.7 years of its rent (8.6% gross profitability), the lowest ratio of 16 Colombian cities; in Manizales are 19.2 years. In Bogotá, 14.7 years: 335 million pesos in price compared to 1.90 million pesos per month.
Summary: We compare the average price and rent of 12,706 apartments for sale and for rent in 16 cities.
Updated: 18 October 2026 (data from 18 October 2026) · Next update: monthly.
Summary
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Less years | Barranquilla: 11.7 |
| More years | Manizales: 19.2 |
| Bogotá | 14.7 years |
Years of rent worth a studio, by city
| City | Price (medium) | Monthly rental | Years of rent | Gross return | Years (fit. 1 hab.) | Announcements (sale / rental) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barranquilla | 280 million pesos | 2.00 million pesos | 11.7 | 8.6% | 12.3 | 243 / 424 |
| Bucaramanga | 195 million pesos | 1.27 million pesos | 12.8 | 7.8% | — | 100 / 77 |
| Santa Marta | 385 million pesos | 2.50 million pesos | 12.8 | 7.8% | 14.4 | 345 / 47 |
| The Retreat | 497 million pesos | 3.20 million pesos | 12.9 | 7.7% | 12.0 | 41 / 51 |
| Sabaneta | 350 million pesos | 2.15 million pesos | 13.6 | 7.4% | 12.9 | 133 / 122 |
| Chia | 285 million pesos | 1.72 million pesos | 13.8 | 7.2% | 14.7 | 118 / 88 |
| Medellin | 475 million pesos | 2.80 million pesos | 14.1 | 7.1% | 13.6 | 900 / 2,055 |
| Bogotá | 335 million pesos | 1.90 million pesos | 14.7 | 6.8% | 14.3 | 2,202 / 2,919 |
| Pereira | 340 million pesos | 1.90 million pesos | 14.9 | 6.7% | 15.8 | 319 / 221 |
| Beautiful | 260 million pesos | 1.45 million pesos | 14.9 | 6.7% | — | 33 / 58 |
| Armenia | 270 million pesos | 1.50 million pesos | 15.0 | 6.7% | — | 291 / 115 |
| Cartagena | 484 million pesos | 2.50 million pesos | 16.1 | 6.2% | 18.6 | 104 / 43 |
| Cali | 320 million pesos | 1.50 million pesos | 17.8 | 5.6% | 13.3 | 327 / 479 |
| Envigado | 665 million pesos | 3.10 million pesos | 17.9 | 5.6% | 15.5 | 86 / 176 |
| Rionegro | 494 million pesos | 2.20 million pesos | 18.7 | 5.3% | 14.4 | 77 / 153 |
| Manizales | 300 million pesos | 1.30 million pesos | 19.2 | 5.2% | — | 234 / 125 |
Medium price (monthly average rental × 12) of studio apartments; the last column compares with 1 room apartments.
Frequently asked questions
Is it good business to buy a studio to rent? It depends on the city: in Barranquilla it is paid with 11.7 years of rent and in Manizales with 19.2, before HOA fee, taxes and vacations.
How much does a studio apartment rent in Bogotá? 6.8% gross per year.
Methodology
- Source: night events of the Aptology database (aptologia.com) of 18 October 2026: current housing ads in real estate portals of 13 countries, collected by Aptology and seen online between 11 and 18 October 2026. Court: 18 October of 2026.
- Debugging: exact duplicates (same city, area, type, price, currency, area, rooms and bathrooms) and prices outside the percentile 1 - 99 of each country, operation, currency and type are removed; the price per m² uses only ads with declared area between 12 and 2,000 m² and is also cut to P1-P99.
- What is measured: prices ordered (published), not closing prices. For rent, monthly rent without HOA fee, common expenses or condo.
- Minimum sample: each published figure is based on at least 30 ads; cells with less are omitted.
- Colombia: Prices in Colombian pesos, no currency conversion.
- Years of rent to pay for the house: The average sales price (monthly average rental × 12) between the same type of ads and the cell; it is the price / rent ratio (price-to-rent ratio) and is equivalent to 100 - gross profitability. It does not include HOA fee, taxes, vacations, financing or recovery: it is a reference to compare to purchase and rent, not an investment recommendation.
- Limitations: The coverage depends on the portals that travel Aptology in each country and is greater in large cities and in the medium-high and high segments; the area is the one that declares the announcement, unverified; the area names come from the portals.
- Privacy: only aggregates are published; no personal data, link to ads or name of advertiser is published.
- Open data: datos.csv, CC BY license 4. 0.
How to quote
Pinzón Pineda, D. M. (2026). Buy a studio to rent? Years of rent worth a studio in 16 cities of Colombia (October 2026). Aptology (aptologia.com). https://github.com/elbroker/aptologia-datos/tree/main/estudios/comprar-o-alquilar-un-apartaestudio-ciudades-colombia-2026. Data: datos.csv, CC BY license 4. 0.
Sources and data
- DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23475832 (Zenodo)
- Original study (Spanish): ¿Comprar un apartaestudio para arrendar? Años de arriendo que vale un apartaestudio en 16 ciudades de Colombia (octubre 2026)
- GitHub (CSV, PDF): https://github.com/elbroker/aptologia-datos/tree/main/estudios/comprar-o-arrendar-un-apartaestudio-ciudades-colombia-2026
- Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/datasets/aptologia/comprar-o-arrendar-un-apartaestudio-ciudades-colombia-2026