MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

2026 World Cup drives Airbnb supply surge in Mexican host cities and consolidates real estate firms' control

In all three cities, the main hosts are companies linked to the real estate sector and urban developers, rather than individuals

The approach of the 2026 World Cup, which Mexico will co-host alongside the United States and Canada, has accelerated the mass conversion of traditional housing into short-term tourist rentals in the three Mexican cities hosting the tournament, with a sharp rise of real estate firms as the dominant market actor. According to data from the specialized firm AirDNA cited by the newspaper El País, the supply of properties on Airbnb and similar platforms grew in Mexico City by 30% between 2023 and 2026, rising from 18,000 to close to 24,000 units. In the Guadalajara metropolitan area, growth reached 50%, to 9,760 properties, and in the Monterrey metropolitan area it doubled, to 7,274 units.

In all three cities, the main hosts are companies linked to the real estate sector and urban developers, rather than individuals. In Mexico City, the firms Virtual Homes (699 properties), Kukun (568), and Mr. W (279) lead the offer. Virtual Homes belongs to Carcho Administración, whose founder, José Carrillo Chontkowsky, was named in 2012 over alleged illegal financing of the campaign of former PRI president Enrique Peña Nieto. In Guadalajara, Qüarat Living Rentals (265) and Del Mar Boutique (174) dominate, both with direct ties to architectural and real estate developments. In Monterrey, Anfitrip, a brand of AG Proyectos de Inversión, controls 165 properties. These corporate structures fit within a platform originally conceived as the collaborative economy, in practice functioning as parallel hotel chains with looser regulation, according to consulted academics.

The growth has translated into a deepening housing crisis. In Mexico City's Cuauhtémoc borough, between 11% and 20% of all housing is offered on Airbnb, according to the book Airbnificación in Mexico City, by academics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Neighborhood collectives such as the 06600 Vecinal Platform and Observatory of Colonia Juárez have documented since 2020 mass evictions in Colonia Juárez, where the displacement of around 4,000 residents is estimated. One of the emblematic cases is the Pandora building, on the corner of Nápoles and Londres streets, where at least twelve families were evicted in December 2020 without prior notice. Three years later, the property reopened as a tourist operation managed by Virtual Homes, with rooms ranging from 5,000 to 12,000 pesos per day.

Mexico City approved in 2024 a Tourism Law that caps at three the maximum number of Eventual Tourist Stays per host and requires from the fourth property onward registration as a commercial establishment and Commercial or Mixed land use, categories that cover only 21% of the capital's territory. Implementation was suspended until 21 May, when the local government activated the host registry. Around 1,400 hosts with four or more properties concentrate half of the capital's offer and would fall under the new regime. Nuevo León released its own tourism law last week, without caps per host; Guadalajara is still debating an equivalent regulation.