Colombia versus the rest of Latin America: how much the housing costs in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla compared to other large cities (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.
The large Colombian cities are cheaper per square metre than their peers in the region: the median of the 20 most available Colombian cities is USD 1,942 / m² for sale, compared to USD 2,185 / m² in the 13 large cities of other countries. Medellín (USD 2,356 / m²) and Bogotá (USD 2,282 / m²) are below Mexico City, Santiago, Montevideo and Buenos Aires.
Summary: We compare cities with 300 or more apartments with area for sale and for rent (33 cities).
Updated: 18 October 2026 (data from 18 October 2026) · Next update: monthly.
Summary
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Mediana Colombian cities | USD 1,942 / m² |
| Median other large cities | USD 2,185 / m² |
| Comparative cities | 33 |
Large cities (300 ads or more for sale and for rent)
| City | USD / m² sale | Rental USD / m² / month | Gross return |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lisbon, Portugal | 8,383 | 25.8 | 3.7% |
| Punta del Este (Uruguay) | 3,604 | 40.6 | 13.5% |
| Santiago (Chile) | 3,189 | 10.6 | 4.0% |
| Montevideo, Uruguay | 3,040 | 15.3 | 6.1% |
| El Retiro (Colombia) | 2,929 | 15.5 | 6.3% |
| Mexico City, Mexico | 2,894 | 18.1 | 7.5% |
| Santa Marta (Colombia) | 2,740 | 14.1 | 6.2% |
| Envigado (Colombia) | 2,656 | 15.4 | 6.9% |
| Buenos Aires, Argentina | 2,558 | 13.5 | 6.3% |
| Cartagena, Colombia | 2,469 | 13.9 | 6.7% |
| Medellín (Colombia) | 2,356 | 15.5 | 7.9% |
| Rionegro (Colombia) | 2,337 | 11.8 | 6.1% |
| Bogotá, Colombia | 2,282 | 15.2 | 8.0% |
| Sabaneta (Colombia) | 2,237 | 12.9 | 6.9% |
| Lima, Peru | 2,185 | 10.0 | 5.5% |
| Itagüí (Colombia) | 2,126 | 12.6 | 7.1% |
| La Estrella (Colombia) | 2,023 | 12.0 | 7.1% |
| La Ceja (Colombia) | 1,861 | 11.7 | 7.6% |
| Asunción (Paraguay) | 1,843 | 12.9 | 8.4% |
| Cajicá (Colombia) | 1,782 | 10.7 | 7.2% |
| Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) | 1,769 | 11.7 | 7.9% |
| Chia (Colombia) | 1,737 | 10.5 | 7.2% |
| Pereira, Colombia | 1,728 | 10.5 | 7.3% |
| Bello, Colombia | 1,716 | 10.5 | 7.3% |
| Armenia, Colombia | 1,675 | 10.1 | 7.3% |
| Floridablanca (Colombia) | 1,626 | 9.2 | 6.8% |
| Bucaramanga, Colombia | 1,466 | 9.3 | 7.6% |
| Cali (Colombia) | 1,461 | 9.4 | 7.7% |
| Barranquilla (Colombia) | 1,424 | 10.6 | 8.9% |
| Caracas, Venezuela | 1,400 | 12.1 | 10.4% |
| Guayaquil, Ecuador | 1,364 | 8.5 | 7.5% |
| Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia) | 1,241 | 7.3 | 7.0% |
| Quito, Ecuador | 1,000 | 7.2 | 8.7% |
Frequently asked questions
Is the housing in Colombia expensive in front of Latin America? By square meter, no: the large Colombian cities have a median of USD 1,942 / m², compared to USD 2,185 / m² in other large cities of the region.
Is Medellin more expensive than Bogotá? For sale, Medellín marks USD 2,356 and Bogotá USD 2,282 (medium of apartments).
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.
- Coins: never mix different coin ads without converting them. Conversión a dólares con la tasa de mercado de ExchangeRate-API (open.er-api.com, actualización del 18 Oct 2026): 1 USD = 3,182.80 COP, 1 USD = 18.47 M.N, 1 USD = 5.09 BRL, 1 USD = 3.44 PEN, 1 USD = 982.44 CLP, 1 USD = 1,514.57 ARS, 1 USD = 40.20 UYU, 1 USD = 5,705.37 PYG, 1 USD = 61.27 DOP, 1 USD = 0.89 EUR, 1 USD = 11.72 BOB; la UF chilena a 41,178.64 CLP (mindicador,cl. 18-oct-2026). The ads published in dollars are used as they are.
- 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). Colombia versus the rest of Latin America: how much the housing costs in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Barranquilla compared to other large cities (October 2026). Aptology (aptologia.com). https://github.com/elbroker/aptologia-datos/tree/main/estudios/colombia-vs-latinoamerica-precio-vivienda-2026. Data: datos.csv, CC BY license 4. 0.
Sources and data
- DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23460725 (Zenodo)
- Original study (Spanish): Colombia frente al resto de Latinoamérica: cuánto cuesta la vivienda en Bogotá, Medellín, Cali y Barranquilla comparada con otras grandes ciudades (octubre 2026)
- GitHub (CSV, PDF): https://github.com/elbroker/aptologia-datos/tree/main/estudios/colombia-vs-latinoamerica-precio-vivienda-2026
- Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/datasets/aptologia/colombia-vs-latinoamerica-precio-vivienda-2026