Investment
The structure matters more than the unit.
Two people can buy the identical apartment on the same day. One of them can use it for a visa and remit the proceeds out cleanly. The other cannot. The difference was decided by paperwork, weeks before either of them saw the place.
Get the registration right first
Foreign capital used to buy real estate in Colombia should enter through an authorised exchange intermediary and be declared as an international investment on Formulario No. 4. Registration is what gives you the recognised rights that attach to foreign direct investment, including the ability to remit capital and proceeds abroad through the exchange market, and it is the evidence the Cancillería looks for on an investor visa application. Read this before transferring funds.
Yield, honestly
I do not publish a headline yield figure for Medellín, because any single number is either cherry-picked or stale. What I will do is model a specific unit with you: gross rent against purchase price, minus administración, predial, maintenance provision, vacancy assumption, management, and the tax treatment that applies to a non-resident owner. That produces a number you can defend. A brochure percentage is not one.
Three things reliably erode the projections foreign buyers arrive with:
- Administración. In newer El Poblado towers with substantial amenities it is a serious monthly figure, and it is charged whether or not the unit is occupied.
- Currency. Your rent is in pesos and your expectations are probably in dollars. The COP/USD rate has been volatile enough over the past decade to swamp the yield in either direction.
- Short-term rules. Building regulations and municipal enforcement around nightly letting have tightened. An investment case built on it needs the building's written rules, not an assumption.
Property as a residency route
An M-Investor visa can be supported by real estate where the registered investment exceeds 350 SMMLV. With the 2026 minimum monthly wage at COP 1,750,905, that is approximately COP 612.8 million. Permanent residency under the R category requires a substantially larger registered investment — above 650 SMMLV. Because the threshold is denominated in minimum wages and the minimum wage is reset every January, a purchase that cleared the bar comfortably in one year can be under it at renewal. How the threshold works, and how people get caught by it.
I am not an immigration lawyer and I do not file visas. What I can do is make sure the purchase is registered in a way that keeps the option open, and hand you to someone who does this properly.