Marco Tulio Peraza Guzmán, PhD in Architecture, head of the Graduate and Research Unit at the Faculty of Architecture at UADY, stated that “this phenomenon also contributes to awakening the interest of the real estate industry and the tourism sector in relaunching the city’s image as a cultural capital and cultural tourism destination.
This has impacted the urban economy in just a few years, developing public policies for neighborhood regeneration during different administrations in the central area of the city from the last decade of the last century to the present.”
“It has been a phenomenon that has fueled itself ever since, creating a virtuous cycle of investment and growth in the real estate market, with the arrival of foreigners and nationals who take advantage of it,” he stated.
“The historic character of the central neighborhoods is accentuated not only by their architecture and urban image, but also by their distinctive cultural life, making them authentic sites of the local cultural landscape where the traditions of their surroundings are combined with the new modern services and life satisfactions associated with the ongoing globalization in the areas being affected.”
“All of this makes La Ermita, Santiago, and Santa Ana in particular the most sought-after neighborhoods for tourism, and especially for foreigners, as they combine both dimensions, a phenomenon that is expected to spread to other neighboring neighborhoods.”
“The answer to the question of whether foreign migration to the city’s neighborhoods is positive or negative is not absolute, but relative,” he reflected.
“The positive side of the phenomenon is evident in the architectural and urban spatial recovery of the environment where this migration occurs, as it is generally accompanied by private and public investment that would not have occurred before without this incentive.
“However, the negative side is the impact it has on the neighborhood way of life, which sees its traditional ancestral way of life and the replacement of the resident population.
Like all modernization, it engenders a contradiction between change and permanence.
The important thing today is not to choose between one or the other, but to find balances that allow them to intertwine, combine, and appropriate the advantages of economic development without diminishing the cultural authenticity of each place.”
The post Foreign Residents Drive Real Estate Boom in Downtown Mérida first appeared on The Yucatan Times.