Digital Nomads Drive a Development Boom in Medellín

To eat lunch in Medellín’s poshest neighborhoods is to be assaulted with the sound of jackhammers. Most of the buildings going up are viviendas turisticas, or “tourist homes,” an emerging style of housing that combines elements of a boutique hotel, a co-living space and a studio apartment.

The short-term rental properties are targeted at the droves of self-described digital nomads who’ve arrived in Colombia from other Latin American countries, Europe and the US since the Covid-19 pandemic. These youngish visitors, most of them under age 45, stay anywhere from a few nights to several months. An estimated 90 viviendas, ...