Prices Jump as Venezuelans Abroad Consider Buying Property Back Home

Venezuelan Housing Prices Jump as Émigrés Consider BuyingNicolás Maduro’s capture and talk of oil investment have pushed prices higher, even as brokers say enthusiasm is outpacing demand in a weak economy.The capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has helped spur growing interest in buying real estate in the country. Credit...Alejandro Cegarra for The New York TimesVenezuelan Housing Prices Jump as Émigrés Consider BuyingNicolás Maduro’s capture and talk of oil investment have pushed prices higher, even as brokers say enthusiasm is outpacing demand in a weak economy.The capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has helped spur growing interest in buying real estate in the country. Credit...Alejandro Cegarra for The New York TimesSKIP Genevieve GlatskyMaria Ramírez and Nayrobis RodríguezGenevieve Glatsky reported from Bogotá, Colombia; Maria Ramírez from Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela; and Nayrobis Rodríguez from Cumaná, Venezuela.Feb. 16, 2026Buying property in his home country was once “unthinkable” for Carlos Peñalver, a Venezuelan electrician who left for the United States four years ago as the economy of Venezuela faltered. The capture of President Nicolás Maduro changed the calculus, enough to get Mr. Peñalver to start calling real estate agents.He soon closed on a three-bedroom apartment in the eastern port city of Puerto Ordaz. Days later, prices had already gone up. There were fewer properties available. “I was lucky,” said Mr. Peñalver, 26.It is still early days in what could become a post-Maduro chapter in the South American nation, which has been marked by authoritarian rule, economic collapse and mass migration.The possibility of political freedom and an improved economy has stirred excitement among Venezuelans at home and abroad. That optimism has fueled a surge of interest in real estate as expatriates, some of whom have built savings abroad, weigh returning — or at least investing — for the first time in years, according to real estate agents who note a jump in inquiries.Those calls have not yet become a sales boom. There is no official data tracking the real estate market since Mr. Maduro’s removal on Jan. 3. But interviews with more than a dozen real estate agents, industry leaders, homeowners and prospective buyers suggest that the market has begun to shift with property owners raising prices in anticipation of a buying spree.ImageAn unfinished residential building in the Las Mercedes neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.Credit...Alejandro Cegarra for The New York Times“What’s really at play here are expectations of change,” said Asdrúbal Oliveros, a veteran Venezuelan economist.Many brokers described listings that have sat unsold after price hikes and owners pulling back their properties until the market is stronger.Hopes are being stoked in part by changes in Venezuela’s oil sector, the backbone of the economy. Venezuelan lawmakers last month approved new rules meant to attract foreign investment, raising the potential of higher production and growth.Still, foreign oil companies remain cautious after years of government expropriations, and recent measures are unlikely to unleash an immediate wave of investment. And even under the best of circumstances, any significant improvements in oil production would most likely take years to accomplish.“People had a purely emotional perception — without a rational basis — that their properties were suddenly worth more,” said Pablo González, the president of the Venezuelan Real Estate Chamber.“Could it become reality?” Mr. González added. “I believe it could, but we have to allow economic events to unfold.”For years, Venezuela’s housing market has been all but frozen as hyperinflation destroyed purchasing power and banks abandoned long-term lending. Expropriations under a socialist-inspired government, mainly of large estates and heavy industry but also of individual homes and apartment buildings, made property ownership precarious.ImageThe Los Palos Grandes neighborhood in Caracas.Credit...Alejandro Cegarra for The New York TimesFor many who stayed in Venezuela through those turbulent years and sometimes slipped into poverty, buying a home still remains out of reach, especially at the newly inflated prices.Luisa Rojas, 42, an administrator in the city of Valencia, said she would like to move from her aging apartment to a newer one, but she cannot afford to do so.“The country’s instability makes it impossible to plan ahead,” she said.Such sentiments have narrowed the market to mainly expatriates, real estate agents say.Even so, agents across Venezuela — from the capital and oil regions to beach destinations and smaller cities — said they had seen price increases ranging from 20 percent to as much as 50 percent in some areas.In the eastern city of Ciudad Guayana, Diogelis Pocaterra, a real estate agent, said that one townhouse listed at $55,000 two years ago was raised to $85,000, “solely because of Maduro’s detention.”Prospective buyers have flooded brokers with inquiries, often interested in snapping up what were once known as “opportunity” properties for their impressive amenities at fire sale prices. But those lower-priced homes have largely vanished, agents say, as sellers pull their properties off the market.ImageAbout a quarter of the residents of Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city, left the country in the past few years, before Mr. Maduro’s capture.Credit...Marian Carrasquero for The New York Times“Many people have contacted our agency thinking there are still ‘opportunity deals’ like there once were — beachfront apartments, furnished, for $18,000 or $20,000,” Ms. Pocaterra said. “That no longer exists.”In Cumaná, the capital of the coastal state of Sucre, Adriana Rodríguez, a broker, said prices had risen about 20 percent since early January, while roughly 80 percent of listings had been paused as owners wait for clearer economic signals.“I’ve been working for about 25 days with five clients for whom I haven’t been able to find anything. They contact me every day,” she said, adding that they complain about the higher asking prices. “People see those listings on social media and think the prices are crazy.”In tourist-heavy regions like Margarita Island, brokers estimate that about 80 percent of current inquiries are from Venezuelans living abroad, with more limited interest from foreign buyers.“Right now, the situation doesn’t justify these exaggerated increases,” Ms. Pocaterra said. “These processes take time, and that’s what we need to understand — and explain to owners who are being driven by news, emotion and euphoria.”ImageMargarita Island, off the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, is popular with foreign tourists.Credit...Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York TimesReporting was contributed by Tibisay Romero, Sheyla Urdaneta, María Victoria Fermín and Camille Rodríguez Montilla.Genevieve Glatsky is a reporter for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia.SKIP