Mexico City Will Expropriate 400 Buildings to Build Social Housing

ByRocío González Alvarado

This article by Rocío González Alvarado originally appeared in the November 21, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The Mexico City government plans to expropriate 400 properties during this six-year term in order to guarantee the right to decent and affordable housing for the lowest-income population.

According to the Legal Counsel and Legal Services Office, in the first year 38 expropriation decrees were issued, of which 27 were published in the Official Gazette in favor of the Housing Institute, and 11 in favor of the Commission for the Reconstruction of Mexico City.

During this same period, 39 declarations of public utility were published, from which it is expected that in the remainder of the year the expropriation of another 11 properties will be achieved for popular housing or to allocate them to the families affected by the 2017 earthquake.

These are deteriorated buildings in different neighborhoods of Mexico City that are considered to be of high structural risk, both for their occupants and for the community where they are located.

In the case of the properties expropriated in favor of the Reconstruction Commission, these are buildings that were damaged by the 2017 earthquake, and for their rehabilitation, this process must be carried out beforehand.

Design proposals for cooperative-run public housing built by the Mexico City government, featuring Karl Marx, VI Lenin & Rosa Luxemburg.

For the expropriation process to begin, the properties must have reports issued by a director responsible for the work, an assistant of the public administration or, where applicable, from the Secretariat of Comprehensive Risk Management and Civil Protection or from the Secretariat of Works and Services, as well as from the local Institute for Construction Safety.

In these cases, the owners or occupants of the properties are the ones who request the expropriation so that affordable and social housing can be built for them.

The Government of Mexico City, through the Housing Institute, pays the constitutional compensation to the owner affected by this expropriation, after proof of their legal interest, and the amount is determined based on the appraisal issued by the General Directorate of Real Estate Assets of the Ministry of Administration and Finance.

Among the properties expropriated this year are those located at Saratoga 410, Portales neighborhood, in Benito Juárez; Mar Mediterráneo 123, in Popotla, Miguel Hidalgo; and Ruiseñor 15, José María Pino Suárez neighborhood, in Álvaro Obregón.

The list also includes those at Francisco S. Rivas 52, in the Obrera neighborhood; Sastrería 99, Morelos neighborhood; Enrique Fernández Granados 22, in Algarín, all in the Cuauhtémoc borough, and Lago Winnipeg 37, San Juanico neighborhood, in Miguel Hidalgo, among others.