Question 1

What makes a unit usable as a medical office in Colombia?

Accepted Answer

A consulting suite has to be able to meet the Ministry of Health's habilitación standards for the services you intend to offer: minimum room dimensions, a hand-washing point inside or immediately adjacent to the consulting room, washable floor and wall finishes, accessible circulation and restrooms, and safe handling of clinical waste. That is why we publish room counts, unit size and delivery specification on every listing. Units delivered with flooring, finished walls, a private bathroom and a water point are far cheaper to license than a bare shell.

Question 2

Who actually issues the licence — the building or the practice?

Accepted Answer

The practice. Registration in REPS (Registro Especial de Prestadores de Servicios de Salud) is granted to the healthcare provider — a physician or a company — for a specific service at a specific address. The building can only make that process easy or hard. A developer designing to clinical standards from the start (medical waste routes, stretcher elevators, generator backup, HVAC capacity) removes most of the usual obstacles, but you still self-declare compliance and are subject to inspection by the departmental health authority.

Question 3

Can a surgery or procedure room go into an ordinary office unit?

Accepted Answer

Rarely. Procedure and operating rooms carry stricter requirements for air handling, sterilisation flow, recovery space and separate patient circulation. In practice these belong in the purpose-built clinic floors of a medical building rather than in a consulting suite. If your plan includes procedures, tell us early — it changes which units and which floors are appropriate.

Question 4

Do I need to be Colombian, or a resident, to buy?

Accepted Answer

No. Foreign individuals and foreign companies can own real estate in Colombia on the same terms as nationals. You do not need residency to hold title. You will need identification (passport, and a Colombian tax ID for certain transactions), and foreign funds must enter through the formal channel described below.

Question 5

What are the legal steps, start to finish?

Accepted Answer

1. Due diligence: we pull the certificado de tradición y libertad (the property's title history) and confirm there are no liens, embargoes or unresolved succession issues, plus the developer's licences on a pre-construction unit. 2. Promise of sale (promesa de compraventa): a signed contract setting price, payment schedule, delivery date and penalties. This is where most of your protection lives — it should be reviewed by a Colombian attorney, not signed at a sales desk. 3. Funds registration: money coming from abroad is registered with the Banco de la República through a Colombian bank as foreign investment. Doing this correctly is what lets you repatriate sale proceeds later. 4. Escritura pública: the deed is signed before a notary. 5. Registration: the deed is recorded at the Oficina de Registro de Instrumentos Públicos. Ownership legally transfers on registration, not on signature.

Question 6

What costs should I budget beyond the price?

Accepted Answer

Typically notarial fees, registration tax and registration fees, the beneficencia charge in some departments, and your attorney's fee. Buyer and seller customarily split the notary's fee. On new-build purchases from a developer there may also be a fiduciary administration charge. Budget a single-digit percentage of the purchase price for closing costs, plus ongoing administration (cuota de administración) and predial property tax once you own.

Question 7

Why register the incoming funds so carefully?

Accepted Answer

Because registered foreign investment is the mechanism that allows capital and profits to be sent back out of Colombia legally. Money that arrives informally can be almost impossible to repatriate cleanly later, and creates tax exposure. We insist on this step on every transaction, even when a seller says it is unnecessary.

Question 8

Do I have to travel to Colombia to close?

Accepted Answer

Not necessarily. Many buyers grant a power of attorney (poder), signed and apostilled abroad, to a Colombian attorney who signs on their behalf. We still recommend seeing the building at least once before the deed.

Question 9

How does the Sunkey Markets buying process work?

Accepted Answer

We start with a conversation — what you practise, how many rooms you need, whether you are buying to occupy or to lease to a tenant, and your timeline. Nothing about a property's exact address is released until we have that context. You then receive the private package: address, floor and unit numbers, floor plans, price list, payment schedule and the developer's documentation. From there we coordinate the visit or video walkthrough, introduce an independent Colombian attorney, and stay with the transaction through the deed and registration.

Question 10

Why are addresses hidden on the public listings?

Accepted Answer

Because our sellers and developers ask for discretion, and because early-stage commercial pricing is not something they want circulating publicly. You see the city, the zone, the landmarks, the size and the specification — enough to know whether it is worth a conversation. Full details are sent by a Sunkey Realty broker personally, usually within 24 hours of a request.

Question 11

Do you represent buyers, sellers, or both?

Accepted Answer

Both. In Florida we represent buyers and sellers of residential property; in Colombia we work with developers and owners of commercial and medical space, and with buyers looking for it. Lucy Whitaker is the broker of record and works in English and Spanish.

Question 12

What does it cost to work with Sunkey?

Accepted Answer

On listed Colombian projects the developer pays the brokerage commission, so there is normally no separate fee to the buyer. Where a fee would apply, we tell you in writing before you commit to anything.

Question 13

Colombia has a new president. What changed?

Accepted Answer

Abelardo de la Espriella took office on 7 August 2026, replacing Gustavo Petro and moving the country to the political right. His stated priorities are security, fiscal austerity and a friendlier posture towards private investment. That is a change of direction rather than a change of law. Nothing in the property, title or foreign-investment framework described above has been rewritten, and buyers should plan on the rules as they stand today.

Question 14

What does that mean for property investors?

Accepted Answer

Markets generally price a pro-business administration as a lower-risk environment, and the peso and Colombian assets reacted positively to the result. A calmer security outlook also matters directly for commercial real estate, because tenant demand and patient traffic follow confidence. We would still underwrite any purchase on today's rents and today's costs, not on a political forecast.

Question 15

Where are the real opportunities right now?

Accepted Answer

Health services are the durable story. Colombia is one of Latin America's leading medical-tourism destinations, treatment costs are a fraction of United States prices, and demand for modern, licensable consulting space in the main cities outstrips supply. Barranquilla in particular is a growth corridor: a Caribbean logistics and industrial hub with a young population, expanding private clinics and considerably lower entry prices than Bogotá. Furnished short-stay suites attached to a medical building are the other angle — recovery accommodation for out-of-town and international patients, with a rental yield rather than an occupier's use.

Question 16

What are the honest risks?

Accepted Answer

Currency: your return in dollars depends on the peso as much as on the property. Delivery risk on pre-construction. Regulatory change in healthcare reimbursement, which affects tenants' ability to pay. And liquidity — commercial resale in Colombia is slower than in Florida. We would rather you hear this from us than discover it later. None of it is a reason to avoid the market; all of it is a reason to buy carefully.

Buying in Colombia, answered plainly.

Medical office requirements

Legal steps

The Sunkey Markets buying process

The new administration & opportunities

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