Demand for land in México state near the site of the new airport is on the rise, and landowners are determined to cash in.
According to a report in Milenio, would-be buyers are offering ejidatarios, or community landowners, between 200 and 300 pesos (US $10 to $15) per square meter for land located near the Santa Lucía Air Force Base north of Mexico City.
But many landowners have made it clear that they will only sell for 5,000 pesos (US $250) per square meter.
Fabián Pineda, a representative of 140 ejidatarios who own 240 hectares of land that they would consider selling at the right price, described the offers already made as “an insult.”
Land in Tecámac, the municipality where the Felipe Ángeles airport is expected to begin operations in 2021, is reportedly sought after for the construction of warehouses and aerospace factories.
But Pineda explained that while there is a lot of poverty, unemployment, drug addiction and crime in Tecámac, there is not very much free land.
Local small-lot farmers told Milenio that those seeking to buy might have better luck finding sites for their proposed developments adjacent to the Mexico City-Toluca highway but warned that land there won’t sell for less than 5,000 pesos per square meter either.
Interest in real estate in the area surrounding the new airport is not limited to vacant land.
Arnulfo Díaz de la Rosa, president of a local citizens’ council, said that hundreds of long-abandoned apartments are now being renovated in preparation for sale due to greater investor interest as a result of the airport project.
In the municipalities of Tecámac, Zumpango, Huehuetoca and Nextlalpan there are almost 3,000 apartments that were built with national housing fund credits but are now empty.
The vacant properties have been exploited by criminals but there is an expectation among residents that the airport will help combat crime and other social problems by bringing positive development and employment into the municipalities located between 40 and 50 kilometers north of central Mexico City.
The Secretariat of Defense will be in charge of the project that is forecast to cost just under 80 billion pesos (US $4 billion).
Before he took office in December, President López Obrador announced that his government would cancel the partially-built US $13 billion airport project at Texcoco, México, state after a legally questionable public consultation found almost 70% support to scrap it.
López Obrador opposed the previous government’s signature infrastructure project on the grounds that it was corrupt, too expensive, not needed and being built on land that was sinking.
Source: Milenio (sp)
