My Medellin Penthouse Renovation – full ROI analysis and cost breakdown

Nov 23, 2025 | Private List update

2.5 years ago I bought a Penthouse in Medellin

But it needed a complete gut job, and I had a unique concept in mind.

I went back to Medellin a few months ago to see the result in person. The entire remodeling was done remotely.

I’m very happy with the results and the penthouse has had an occupancy rate of 100%. But, there were some serious cost overruns.

In this video I explain the process, costs, net ROI analysis and show the end result of the renovation.

https://youtu.be/NQ_RyOvytck?si=A-MtYAVZi3Wz1NMZ

My Medellin Penthouse Renovation – full ROI analysis and cost breakdown (https://youtu.be/NQ_RyOvytck?si=A-MtYAVZi3Wz1NMZ)

Yields are compressing in Medellin

When I first traveled to Medellin in 2021, net rental yields of 10%+ were easily achievable.

Since then, Medellin has absolutely boomed from a tourism point of view.

And at the same time:
– Real estate prices have gone up
– The supply of rental units has gone up, resulting in rental prices remaining relatively stable

The end result is lower net rental yields. One can now realistically aim for a 7% net yield – not quite the 10% net enjoyed a few years back. It’s lower, but the city has in many ways been “de-risked” and Gustavo Petro, the current socialist president in power, is set to lose next year’s elections which will see a more pro-business government take over.

This should result in a re-rating of Colombian assets.

Feel free to read the report on investing in Medellin.

If you want to invest in Medellin, my Swedish realtor Mauricio can help you with this.

I’m off to Nairobi

I’m writing this from the brand new Freetown International Airport in Sierra Leone.

It’s absolutely not what I expected when first landing in this country with a GDP per capita of $857.

It was built by Turkey two years ago. It’s clean, airy, swift and nobody asked me for a bribe.

It was a really interesting week here doing due diligence on the Sierra Leone citizenship by investment.

I am now flying to Nairobi

I’ll be staying in Kenya for over two weeks as there are a few real estate projects in Nairobi and on the coast that I am interested in and that I want to investigate.

To a World of Opportunities,

The Wandering Investor.

Services in Colombia:

Articles on Colombia:

If you want to read more such articles on other real estate markets in the world, go to the bottom of my International Real Estate Services page.

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My favourite brokerage to invest in international stocks is IB. To find out more about this low-fee option with access to plenty of markets, click here.

If you want to discuss your internationalization and diversification plans, book a consulting session or send me an email.

Transcript of “My Medellin Penthouse Renovation – full ROI analysis and cost breakdown”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas of The Wandering Investor. Two years ago, I bought a penthouse here in Medellín, in Laureles. And I had made a video showing what I wanted to do with the project, all of the numbers, expected ROI, etc. And now, fast-forward two years, the apartment has been renovated, and we have all of the actuals in terms of ROI, rental returns, and all of that. And Mauricio has been managing the process with his team. He’s also managing the property.

Mauricio, how are you?

MAURICIO: I’m good. It’s been an exciting two years. [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] It has indeed.

MAURICIO: Yeah.

Overview of Laureles Estadio and Conquistadores

LADISLAS MAURICE: Tell us a little bit about this particular area of Laureles, which is called San Joaquín. I invested here for a reason. Can you elaborate?

MAURICIO: Yeah. San Joaquín is located in Laureles Estadio area, which is just between Conquistadores, which is a neighborhood just across the street. You have Parques del Río, which is very nice in December. And then it’s between the second and first parts. It’s just between two commercial parts, which is starting to gentrify with more hotels. Here on the first floor, as you can see, there’s more shops, restaurant, and barberia, for example.

LADISLAS MAURICE: I remember I was walking in this neighborhood about, like, three years ago, walking in front of a barber shop, and the guys were in front, they were smoking. And as I walked by, they asked me if I want to buy stuff from them. Fast-forward three years, I walked back in front, and this time it was a pet shop with a White girl inside. If that’s not the definition of gentrification, then what is? [laughs]

MAURICIO: [laughs]

Tour of my penthouse in Laureles, Medellin

LADISLAS MAURICE: All right. Let’s go into the apartment now. Let’s go look at the renovation, let’s discuss it in detail, and let’s do all of the numbers. Let’s go.

MAURICIO: Yeah, let’s go.

LADISLAS MAURICE: All right. This is actually my first time, and we did a little tour just before, but this is my first time coming back to the apartment since the renovation. Cool. Mauricio, yeah, big reno?

MAURICIO: Yeah, 240 square meters full renovation.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And this is the man that did it all, Felipe. How are you doing, Felipe?

FELIPE: How are you?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Good. Yeah, fantastic.

FELIPE: Hi, Mauricio?

LADISLAS MAURICE: This renovation job was managed, essentially, entirely remotely. I came back, I think, just once or twice.

MAURICIO: One time, I think.

LADISLAS MAURICE: I think once, yeah, I didn’t really even need to, I was here for other stuff. Felipe works closely with Mauricio. You work on quite a few of Mauricio’s projects, right?

FELIPE: Yes.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. We were able to do this in English, in writing, all the communication, the whole renovation. It’s not like it needed to be done all in Spanish or it was complicated. This is essentially the result of a process that took quite a few months, done entirely remotely. This whole space, this wall, gone. We’re going to have to redo the kitchen, remove this wall. And then–

MAURICIO: Open kitchen concept, of course.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yes, open kitchen concept. And here, this bedroom does not have a bathroom. What we’ll do is we’ll eat up a little bit of the kitchen and of the wardrobe and create a separate bathroom for this room. We made quite a lot of changes, because here, the kitchen used to be a bit bigger, but what we wanted to do was to make sure that each bedroom had a bathroom, because the original configuration of this apartment was six bedrooms and four bathrooms, and we changed it into five bedrooms and five bathrooms. This is just one of the bedrooms. And then there is this one, quite a big–

MAURICIO: It’s a large room.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, and it’s all very bright. Then there’s the master bedroom, that’s the bigger one with an extra little desk space. We had all the wardrobes redone, the bathrooms completely redone. I mean, it was a complete gut job from A to Z. Mauricio, do you do a lot of gut jobs like that?

MAURICIO: Yeah, we do several a year.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Several a year?

MAURICIO: Yeah. Mostly, for investors as you.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. The advantage of renovating in Colombia is that, generally speaking, the costs are still lower than in other markets. Even in other parts of Latin America, typically, renovation jobs are more expensive than Colombia. Here, it’s worth it to buy something that’s not quite there, and to do the full renovation job.

MAURICIO: And also, you have the tenants who want to rent them because of the large tourism and increasing populations.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

MAURICIO: It’s a good mix.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And the tenants are pretty high-end in Medellín, in many cases.

MAURICIO: Yeah, exactly. They come from the United States a lot of times.

LADISLAS MAURICE: I mean, when we were initially working on the plans, we ended up doing a higher-end renovation than we had initially planned for. And you’re the one, Mauricio, always telling me, “Ladislas, don’t be cheap–“

MAURICIO: Don’t cheap out. [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: “Don’t cheap out.” I was, like, resisting a little bit, but then I–

MAURICIO: That’s how you get long-term happy clients.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, we went bigger than we initially thought. Yeah, everything custom.

MAURICIO: You have a little balcony out there as well, with a nice view.

LADISLAS MAURICE: We’ll do all the numbers upstairs in terms of comparing before and after.

MAURICIO: See how close we were. [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] Going upstairs, this is really the key selling point of this apartment. It’s what makes the difference. There’s another bedroom, which we actually made bigger because we wanted to integrate an ensuite bathroom, which there wasn’t before. I think three bathrooms were created from scratch, or something, two or three. Felipe, how many bathrooms were created from scratch here? I think two? Two didn’t exist.

FELIPE: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: There’s a lot of work to be done as well in terms of plumbing and all of that.

MAURICIO: And on the second floor is where they have the ACs as well, since it’s the last top floor used to be.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, the top floor, because we’re right under the roof, needed AC. And this whole space, so this and this together, will be transformed into a coworking space, but a proper thing, kind of WeWork, a proper coworking space with maybe large desk, a few monitors, really comfortable chairs, maybe here, put a whiteboard. And this is the workspace.

Interview with American expat tenants in Medellin

LADISLAS MAURICE: And the tenant is here. How are you?

WILL: Good. What’s going on?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Good, good. Cool.

WILL: Thanks for dropping by.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having us in.

WILL: How are you doing? How are you doing?

MAURICIO: Great, thanks.

LADISLAS MAURICE: The initial target, when we were discussing the plans, was an American startup, a bunch of people who want to move to Medellín, live here. They want to work from home, work hard, and then still be in an environment that’s very convenient, and they can have fun, there’s the jacuzzi, the bar area, everything. Were we on brief?

WILL: Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is great. I actually watched your first video. And when you were describing your tenants, you got us to the tee, right? You said tall Americans, right?

LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]

WILL: I’m tall. Americans like to watch TV, so we’re happy to have a TV in every room. Even though we don’t really watch it, but we like to have it there. And this place is very spacious. Because being in Colombia, in general, this place isn’t really made for tall people. When you get into cars, I’m always banging my head and hitting my knees and stuff. This place is very big. I have a king size bed. But I really kind of think that this is the selling point. We congregate here every day, have our meetings. And we have three people living here now and then, in about a week, we have two more people coming to live here. We’re going to train our sales guys to be digital nomads.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool, fantastic. Really exciting.

WILL: Yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And you said that in the initial video, I referred to Jonathan, the name of the target market.

WILL: Yeah, it was kind of funny, because it was just, like, you threw out a random name, and it was Jonathan, and that happens to be my business partner.

MAURICIO: [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]

WILL: Kind of like you spoke it to existence, and then he was there. But it seems as if we were that exact person. And then when we were looking on the website, we saw this place, and we were just, like, immediately, we were, like, do whatever we need to do to get this place. And I mean, every time we come in, it’s just we like this place a little bit more and more.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Fantastic. Great. And you have a business that we’re going to plug in his business here, because it’s actually relevant to people that follow this channel. Can you tell us about your remote US apostille services?

WILL: Yeah, thank you. We apostille US documents for use in other countries. One of the cool things about here is, when we happened to get here, Colombia started acquiring FBI background checks for all visas. We created a way to have it streamlined so it could get done in two weeks, whereas before, I think just one other service that does it here in roughly from like 6 to 10 weeks, or something like that. But we were able to do it streamlined, get it faster, and we help a lot of the US clients here with their apostilles.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. If you need an apostille for immigration, I mean, typically, you need it for immigration, or for citizenship by investment, etc., there’s a link below. Great.

WILL: All right.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Thank you.

WILL: Thanks a lot.

LADISLAS MAURICE: I really appreciate it.

WILL: I appreciate it.

Rooftop barbecue and jacuzzi addition in Medellin

LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s go check out the terrace. Unfortunately, it’s raining. We are in the city of eternal spring, but just stopped raining, actually. Outdoor kitchen, this because Americans like to eat steak, and meat is pretty cheap in Colombia.

MAURICIO: The town is right there as well, important.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, all of that outside. And then big Jacuzzi. We’re going to have– I mean, Mauricio, what’s happening here with the maintenance? [laughs]

MAURICIO: [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: I’m putting you on the spot, Mauricio.

MAURICIO: Yeah. I have to come back for this one, right?

LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]

MAURICIO: [laughs] Yeah, it’s heavy rains.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, Mauricio is going to have to put a coat of something here. [laughs]

MAURICIO: [laughs] Repainting.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. But yeah, when you’re here, I mean, it’s amazing. Especially at night, you have views of the barrios, the whole lighting of around, so people appreciate that a lot as well. It’s got everything. It’s got the coworking space, and it’s got the– Felipe almost fell down right behind.

MAURICIO: [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: Felipe, tell us about the challenge of bringing the jacuzzi up, because it didn’t fit in the stairs.

FELIPE: We need to bring the jacuzzi up of the building.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And this was quite challenging, because downstairs, the only way to bring it up was to get the approval from one neighbor, and if we didn’t get the approval from the neighbor that had the terrace downstairs, we could not have brought the jacuzzi. It took a lot of negotiations, and yeah, Felipe helped a lot with that. It’s always one of the biggest challenges, which we’ve also come across in this renovation, is neighbors and the HOA in Colombia are rarely very helpful when you do renovations. People tend to get pretty triggered by renovations. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done with the neighbors and the administración, the HOA, to be able to get renovations done properly. You encounter this a lot, right?

MAURICIO: Yeah, we have learned a lot by approaching administration and what way you approach them, how likely they are to help, too. Because they’re essentially like the law of the building, so you definitely want to make sure that they understand you do this together. And it’s not like you want to fight with administration. It’s better to give and take there.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, I’d say it’s more complicated in Colombia than in other markets I’ve been exposed to. Great. Mauricio, tell us about the artist that did this behind?

MAURICIO: Yeah, the artist is the same artist, that’s Juan Valdez, the famous coffee shop, where he used to stay in Medellín and Ibagué, where he’s from. And you can see the theme here is very local and Colombian, so it’s a nice one.

Medellin penthouse renovation budget

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, it’s like these little touches that help polish the final project. Cool. Look, in terms of price, initially, I paid $165,000 for the unrenovated penthouse. Can you still find deals like this?

MAURICIO: No, now two, three years later, it’s very hard. And also, during that time when I found it for you, it was a really good deal.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, so please stop contacting Mauricio saying you want the same deal. I also want the same deal. [laughs]

MAURICIO: [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s discuss the renovations budget. It was initially $78,000 when we had done the numbers, and we ended up at $133,000. That’s quite a big delta. What happened, Mauricio?

MAURICIO: No, there was some currency fluctuation, about 10%, 15% from back then, from when you signed, right?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Typically, in emerging markets, currency fluctuation plays in your favor. In this particular case, it did not. When I bought the penthouse, it was around Col$4,400 to Col$4,500 per dollar, but when I did the renovation, it was Col$3,800, Col$3,900. Suddenly, the renovation cost in dollar terms became 10% to 15% more expensive. And then you add peso inflation during that time. Back then, inflation was running hot at 10% a year. And then that’s how you end up with a renovation that’s more expensive. And then you do a few more extra things, like Mauricio coming to me and saying, “Hey, Ladislas, don’t cheap out. Put air con in these extra two bedrooms and– get a bigger jacuzzi and things like that. And then, gradually, Mauricio convinced me to do something a little better.

Then we had a one-off hit of $25,000. I’m not too comfortable discussing the whole situation here on camera, but I’ll put it this way, Felipe was very helpful and sorted out a situation that could have been quite bad, and he just solved the whole problem. Again, thank you.

FELIPE: You’re welcome.

LADISLAS MAURICE: It sucks to have made works of $25,000 extra that I’m not seeing in the ROI whatsoever, because it’s not something that’s visible. This being said, would I have paid $190,000 for this penthouse back then? Absolutely. At the end of the day, it’s part of what happens when you invest in markets with weaker regulation, a bit more uncertainty, etc. These things, sometimes, happen. Do you see that a lot?

MAURICIO: No, like, this big is the difference from what expected, it’s almost never. What could be expected, like, 5%, 6% difference from what we would tell you.

LADISLAS MAURICE: I got a little bit unlucky on this one, but in the big scheme of things, because of how cheap I bought it for, it doesn’t really matter too much.

Medellin penthouse apartment rental income

LADISLAS MAURICE: Initial rental income, we had planned $3,100 per month, and we are getting?

MAURICIO: We’re getting $3,330 a month. But it was also the kind of the reasons why we spoke about the renovation and make it a little bit more high end, use a little bit better materials that you get long, happy clients. It’s reflecting in the rent, I’d say

LADISLAS MAURICE: It is. Also, the occupancy rate initially was 92% but we’re getting this fully occupied. We have a one-year lease. We don’t have a demand issue with this apartment.

MAURICIO: No, it’s been rented since.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s say, the tenants were to tell us, “Okay, great. We’re leaving in three months’ time when the lease expires.” How quickly would you expect to find replacement tenants?

MAURICIO: That would actually be great for the high season coming in August, so we would do really, I think, even higher than we’re renting for right now.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Poor Jonathan is nervous now. [laughs]

MAURICIO: [laughs]

WILL: [laughs]

MAURICIO: No, but for sure, it’s a great deal.

LADISLAS MAURICE: All right. Then, in terms of numbers, property management, nothing changes. Utilities are up a bit with inflation, property tax, maintenance as well, HOA, so nothing out of the ordinary.

Net rental yield calculation for Laureles apartment

We’re ending up with a net rental yield of 9% pre income tax versus 9.2% that we had predicted. All in all, am I happy with these numbers? I mean, I’m perfectly happy with 9% net yield. All in, we put a bit over $300,000 into this penthouse.

Real estate liquidity in Medellin

LADISLAS MAURICE: If I told you, Mauricio, so normal liquidity, because, again, when you come from North America or Western Europe, you’re not quite used to the levels of liquidity that there is here in Medellín. What’s a normal timeframe to sell an apartment that’s priced normally?

MAURICIO: If it’s right priced, the unit on the traditional market like not renovation project like this, then it’s 12 to 18 months. If it’s a unit like this that is already rented out, priced correctly, I’d say, six months.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Six months, okay. What if I gave you the brief, Mauricio, I want to sell this within nine months normal liquidity time?

MAURICIO: Yeah, I would say that we should start to list it for $380,000. And then the closer, if we don’t happen to find a buyer immediately, we take it down, maybe, like, 2%, 3% until we get it sold. But $360,000, $380,000, we’re very confident we could sell it.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. We’re looking roughly at an increase in dollar terms of about 20% to 25% in two years, so 10% a year. That’s fairly decent. And it’s still pretty cheap per square meter. When you look at it on a per square meter basis, you’re just $1,500 a square meter, including all the furniture.

MAURICIO: But also, for an investor, you would look at it as the income that you will be getting and the money you spend. It’s, like, we’re 100% outcome this price, it’s a good investment for the next buyer as well.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. And it’s not only investors that would buy this. You could have a family that could buy an apartment like this, a Colombian family, a foreign family, etc. It’s not just investor that would be interested in a unit like this. Roughly, it cost me about $1,200, $1,250 a square meter to get this. Now, how much are new apartments being sold for in Laureles on a per square meter basis?

MAURICIO: It’s pretty hard to compare like this, because this is such a big unit, and most units that comes out are a little bit smaller, but I’d say about $1,800 per square meter could be. Depends on the amenities, if it’s daily rental, monthly rentals. There’s a lot of factors, but approximately.

LADISLAS MAURICE: There’s still a market for buying older properties and renovating them. All of these numbers here for renovations, they also include Felipe’s fee. Felipe is not the cheapest [laughs] so in there, there’s a fair amount of fee for Felipe. But if you want a cheaper renovation, sure, you can get some local guys to do it, you manage it yourself, etc., and then you don’t hire an architect to actually deal with the whole renovations process. But I’m not in the business of managing renovations myself, so I was more than happy to get Felipe to help with the renovation. Here, we’re looking at 9% net. If new investors come to you, Mauricio, and say, “I want to invest in Medellín,” what would be the net rental yield that they could expect, and that you’re comfortable saying you can deliver?

MAURICIO: I could comfortably deliver 7% expected returns on investment.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. That’s kind of the average now in the current market?

MAURICIO: Yes. Now after the pandemic and the more mature market, we have seen some drop of the returns, but yeah, 7% is doable, for sure.

LADISLAS MAURICE: A combination of two things. One, prices have gone up. And two, there is now more supply in the market as well. There’s more construction, etc.

How to get in touch with Mauricio for Medellin real estate

LADISLAS MAURICE: I wrote a whole article on the real estate market here in Medellín, the neighborhoods you should look into, the places to avoid, some of the key learnings, the tax situation, etc., and some more examples of investments with exact numbers. There’s a link below. And if you want to get in touch with Mauricio, there’s also a link below, and then he can put you in touch directly with Felipe. And if you want a US apostille done, there’s also the link below.

All right. Mauricio, thank you.

MAURICIO: Thanks a lot, again. Yeah.

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