Condesa

Condesa is one of Mexico City's most desirable and internationally recognised neighbourhoods, known for its Art Deco architecture, tree-lined streets, and café culture. Together with neighbouring Roma Norte and Juárez, it forms the core of CDMX's gentrified central belt, and the three colonias together represent the highest concentration of short-term rental listings in the city. Condesa's gentrification accelerated through the 2010s and especially after 2020, when a wave of remote workers and digital nomads relocated to the neighbourhood, attracted by co-working spaces, good connectivity, and lifestyle amenity. Airbnb listings in Hipódromo, Condesa, Roma Norte and Roma Sur rose by 74% between 2019 and 2023, reaching 5,033 active units. Rental prices have roughly doubled over the past decade, and an estimated 30% of original residents have been displaced from the central belt.

The residents' collective Frente Aqui Somos operates primarily in Condesa and Roma, organising against short-let conversion and nomad-driven displacement. In 2025 the group filed expediente 919/2025 against the Ayuntamiento CDMX for failing to activate the short-let registry that was supposed to cap individual hosts at three properties and 183 nights per year. The short-let registration Deadline fell around 21 June 2026 mid-World Cup with no enforcement announcement; operators registered as companies, holding roughly half of CDMX short-let supply, remain outside the three-property individual cap entirely.

For Lowdown, Condesa is the most concentrated case study of transnational gentrification in Mexico City: the neighbourhood where nomad demand and STR supply converge, where residents' organising is most visible, and where the gap between the city's statutory housing protections and their actual enforcement is most acutely felt.