International Retirement Migration and Housing Market in San Miguel de Allende

Abstract

Touristic coastal and colonial intermediate cities in developing countries are preferred destinations among international retirement migrants searching to improve their standard of living. Previous research on International Retirement Migration (IRM) discusses the effects of the arrival of international migrants with higher acquisition power on housing market prices
and the accentuation on residential segregation in retirement destinations; however, this discussion remains mainly at a theoretical level based on qualitative studies. This study focuses on the spatial distribution of international migrants in
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; the evolution of this distribution in the last 50 years; and the influence that the real estate business related to this population has had on the local real estate market. We argue that spatial-based approaches and statistical data are required to point out more specifically the pressure that this kind of migration exerts on the retirement destinations. The significance of this study lies, on one hand, on the data used (records of the Municipal Archive, Population and Housing Censuses, records of foreign buyers, and a market study that we carried out); on the other, on the fact that
it estimates the size and spatial location of international retired migrants in San Miguel de Allende over time, and its effect on the real estate market. Results show that a process of displacement is taking place from the Historic Centre to the urban periphery related, in part, to rising house prices. Estimating the size of the market of foreign property buyers in IRM destinations would allow local and national governments to develop and implement oversight processes and financial mechanisms over a market that remains highly unregulated.