The growth of online real estate marketplaces for rental and sales is evident. Currently, 9 out of 10 users use different platforms to acquire property, with 85% doing so from their mobile phones, showing a high incidence towards renting properties. This trend clearly shows how the housing supply in the country uses digital tools to meet new consumption habits and address issues like the housing deficit, which is estimated at a backlog of 8 million homes. Therefore, digital platforms are key to facilitating access to information for millions of users, closing gaps, and expanding the visibility of the offer to efficiently connect buyers, sellers, and real estate agencies. 'The main role of portals is to attract leads for real estate agents, and technology allows analyzing consumption patterns in property searches,' says Juan Céspedes, Head of Mercado Libre Real Estate. Through this platform, which incorporated 1,500 real estate agencies in 2025 to reach a monthly portfolio of 290,000 properties, it is possible to, through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), detail the preferences of the one million unique visitors who enter each month. Céspedes says that in the current environment, such as the structural deficit in urban areas where demand significantly exceeds available supply, it becomes strategic to access property information, as well as rent-to-own models, to meet the population's needs. Currently, 9 out of 10 property buyers who enter the platform start their search online and have an average age of 25 to 44 years. However, the executive acknowledged that in the last year, there was notable participation from the rental market in Mexico City and its metropolitan area. 'In the last year, rental demand is high, so properties have a high turnover, as they move within a month,' he details by locating the FIFA World Cup as an important detonator of demand. Additionally, the Mexican market is the fourth of the 18 where it operates and plans this year to maintain a similar expansion to last year, as part of an expansion plan to new markets such as Querétaro, Yucatán, Guadalajara, Puebla, and Monterrey.
Digital Platforms Transform Mexico's Real Estate Market
Online platforms for renting and buying homes in Mexico are showing explosive growth. 9 out of 10 users search for property via smartphones, and AI helps analyze demand. The rise in rentals, especially in Mexico City, and plans to expand into new markets point to a digital transformation of the entire industry.
