Montevideo holds a distinction unusual for a market its size: the highest Class A office rent in Latin America. Per JLL, average Class A rent stands at US$34.4 per square metre per month — stable year on year — in a market of a little over 330,000 sqm of occupied offices, set against a regional universe exceeding 32 million sqm.
That combination does not describe a boom. It describes scarcity: high prices over a small stock where quality product is short and quality demand is persistent.
Two things the headline figure conceals are worth putting up front. The overall market average rent — across all classes — actually fell 3.4% year on year, to US$27.9/sqm/month. And the gap between Class A and Class B vacancy, usually cited as evidence of a widening flight to quality, has been narrowing rather than widening.
The vacancy split, and which way it is moving
Overall vacancy stood at 7.2% in 2025, a point below the equivalent period of 2024 and an improvement on the 8.4% recorded for full-year 2024. It is among the lowest rates in the region, where many capitals exceed 10%.
The average hides the more useful number. Class A vacancy fell to 2.7% against 10.9% in Class B.
But the direction matters as much as the level, and it runs against the standard narrative. In the first half of 2024 the same series showed Class A at 2.0% and Class B at 13.2% — a spread of 11.2 percentage points. In 2025 the spread is 8.2 points. Class A vacancy rose slightly; Class B improved considerably.
The flight to quality is real as a description of where demand concentrates. It is not, on this data, accelerating. Class B is not being abandoned faster each year; it recovered ground in 2025 while the premium segment tightened marginally less than before. For an owner of Class B stock, that is a materially different message from the one usually given.
The submarkets
| Submarket | Vacancy | Average rent (US$/sqm/month) | Regime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punta Carretas – Pocitos Nuevo | 0.7% | 35.7 | General |
| Centro Norte (incl. Aguada Park) | 2.0% | 39.0 | Free zone |
| Zonamerica | — | 37.8 | Free zone |
| Carrasco | 4.6% | 18.8 – 21.9 (see note) | General |
| Centro | 16.3% | Lowest in market | General |
Punta Carretas and Zonamerica led demand, driven by infrastructure, services and the free-zone regime, which JLL identifies as a continuing draw for regional and multinational companies.
Two clarifications this table requires.
The two most expensive corridors are both free-zone. Centro Norte at US$39 and Zonamerica at US$37.8 sit above Punta Carretas–Pocitos Nuevo at US$35.7, which operates under the general regime. The tax regime, not building age, is doing much of the pricing work at the top of the market.
There are two incompatible sets of submarket rents in circulation, and both come from JLL. The Montevideo-specific report gives the figures above. The regional Latin America report published later in 2025 gives Centro Norte as the most expensive corridor at US$19.9, followed by Carrasco at US$18.8 and Punta Carretas–Pocitos Nuevo at US$16.7. The rank order is broadly consistent; the levels differ by roughly half. The two are almost certainly measuring different things — asking rent on available space versus contracted average, or a different treatment of free-zone pricing — and they should not be mixed in a single model. Anyone quoting a Montevideo submarket rent should say which report it came from.
On Carrasco: it is frequently grouped with the tightest submarkets. At 4.6% vacancy it sits above the Class A average of 2.7%, which makes it a strong submarket but not a supply-constrained one.
A note on WTC
The World Trade Center complex is often listed as a submarket in its own right. It is not one in JLL’s classification, which recognises five: Punta Carretas–Pocitos Nuevo, Centro, Zonamerica, Centro Norte and Carrasco. WTC sits inside Pocitos Nuevo.
That said, its weight is real and worth quantifying from a different source. Colliers reports that 55% of Montevideo’s A+ inventory is concentrated in the seven World Trade Center buildings in Pocitos Nuevo. When Punta Carretas–Pocitos Nuevo posts 0.7% vacancy, that number is substantially a statement about WTC.
Two consultancies, two pictures
Investors reading only one source will get a tighter market than the evidence supports. The divergence is large enough to name.
| Metric | JLL (2025) | Colliers (2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Class A and B | A and A+ only |
| Inventory | ~330,000 sqm occupied | 336,314 sqm, of which 115,199 sqm in free zone |
| Overall vacancy | 7.2% | 8.3% |
| Premium vacancy | Class A 2.7% | A+ 3.5%; category A 15% |
| Pipeline | ~74,500 sqm under construction to 2027 | 91,728 sqm entering 2025–2027, ~11% annual inventory growth |
The Colliers reading is the more cautious one, and its most striking figure has no equivalent in the JLL summary: category A availability at 15%, against A+ at 3.5%. On that segmentation, the scarcity is concentrated in the top tier alone, and the tier immediately below it is closer to Centro than to WTC.
Colliers also supplies the absorption benchmark absent from most coverage: net absorption has averaged 11,310 sqm per year over the past five years. Against a pipeline of 74,500 to 91,728 sqm entering by 2027, that implies roughly six to eight years of average absorption arriving inside two. That is the number against which the pipeline should be judged.
New supply
No new floor space entered Montevideo’s inventory over the past year. What arrives by 2027 will matter less for its volume than for its placement: new Class A stock in demanded corridors should absorb; generic product in higher-availability zones will add to structural vacancy rather than relieve the scarcity that currently sustains premium pricing.
The absorption arithmetic above is the reason to take that distinction seriously rather than treat it as a truism.
The cost that gets left out: expensas
Nominal rent is not occupancy cost, and in Montevideo the gap is unusually wide.
JLL publishes a dedicated study of common charges across Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Santiago. Montevideo records the highest Class A figure of the three markets at US$7.2/sqm/month, while Buenos Aires leads in Class B at US$5.5.
Added to US$34.4 of rent, that puts full occupancy cost for Class A space at roughly US$41.6/sqm/month — expensas adding over 20% to the headline rate. Montevideo therefore leads the continent twice: on premium rent and on premium common charges.
The counterintuitive part is that newer buildings do not reduce this. More sophisticated HVAC, security and lift systems raise operating cost. A tenant comparing a modern Class A building against an older one on rent alone is comparing the smaller half of the bill.
The free-zone regime, specifically
The regime is not a vague “tax benefit in exchange for presence.” It was established in 1987 by Law 15,921, and grants exemptions including VAT, income tax and wealth tax to companies meeting its requirements. That framework is what drove the development of high-specification space in Zonamerica and Aguada Park, and it is why the two most expensive corridors in the city are both free-zone.
For an occupier, the trade is physical presence inside the perimeter against a tax position; for an investor, it means a portion of the premium market’s pricing rests on a statutory regime rather than on location fundamentals alone.
What tenants are actually doing
Two behavioural shifts sit behind the vacancy numbers and are worth reading alongside them.
Companies are prioritising space that is ready to occupy or needs minimal fit-out, in order to reduce capital expenditure and shorten installation timelines. “The office has stopped being a static space and has become a strategic tool for companies, in both productivity and operational efficiency,” as Malena Bird of JLL Uruguay’s brokerage team put it.
And flexible space is growing — coworking and business centres offering more adaptable contracts and lower entry costs, letting firms adjust size and location quickly. For a tenant locked out of a 0.7%-vacancy submarket, that is the practical alternative the conventional analysis omits. Operating and energy costs are also weighing more heavily in location decisions, which connects directly to the expensas point above.
Regionally, the backdrop is expansionary: JLL recorded corporate space demand across Latin America growing 50% year on year through the second half of 2024 and first half of 2025, driven by economic recovery, the maturation of hybrid work and a preference for higher-quality space.
What it means
For the developer, the margin is in quality product in demanded corridors — Punta Carretas–Pocitos Nuevo, the free-zone nodes, Carrasco — where vacancy is low and willingness to pay is high. The risk is generic product in zones with existing availability. The pipeline arithmetic argues for caution about timing as much as location.
For the tenant, there is little negotiating room in Class A in the tightest submarkets, because the square metres do not exist. Class B and Centro offer better terms in exchange for a building likely to need upgrade investment — and Class B vacancy has been falling, so that window is narrower than it was in 2024. Flexible space is the third option, and expensas should be in every comparison from the outset.
For the investor, the decisive question is which segmentation to underwrite. On JLL’s Class A/B split the premium market is very tight. On Colliers’ A+/A split, only the top tier is, and category A shows 15% availability. Those two readings imply different assets.
Verification checklist
| Figure | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Class A rent US$34.4 | JLL 2025 | Stable YoY; overall market average fell 3.4% to US$27.9 |
| Vacancy 7.2% | JLL 2025 | Against 8.4% full-year 2024 |
| Class A 2.7% / Class B 10.9% | JLL 2025 | Spread narrowed from 2.0%/13.2% in H1 2024 |
| Submarket rents | JLL Montevideo report vs JLL LatAm report | Two incompatible sets; specify which |
| A+ 3.5% / A 15% | Colliers 2025 | Different segmentation from JLL |
| Pipeline | JLL 74,500 sqm; Colliers 91,728 sqm | Different cut-offs and scope |
| Net absorption 11,310 sqm/yr | Colliers | Five-year average |
| Expensas US$7.2 | JLL common-charges study | Class A; highest of BA/MVD/SCL |
Sources
JLL — Informe Mercado de Oficinas de América Latina 2025; JLL Montevideo office market reports, H1 2024 and 2025; JLL — study of common charges across Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Santiago; Colliers Uruguay — Montevideo office market report, 2025, with commentary from Market Leader Fermín Zufiaurre; JLL Uruguay brokerage commentary from Malena Bird; Law 15,921 of 1987 (free-zone regime); reporting by El Observador, Ámbito and Diario de Transporte.
Figures reflect JLL and Colliers reporting on 2025 and were current at the time of writing. The two consultancies use different market definitions and their figures are not interchangeable. General information on commercial property markets. Not investment, tax or legal advice.
