Seasons and demand in Castillogrande: how to ask for the data instead of believing it

Occupancy in Castillogrande is not spread evenly across the year, and the gap between the strong months and the weak ones is what decides whether the operation holds up. That data exists, but it sits with the building manager and the current owners, not in the brochure.

We publish no occupancy or rate figures here, and it is worth distrusting anyone who publishes them without saying where they came from. What you can do is request them from whoever holds them and compare. The seasonal pattern along this coast is shaped by Colombian public holidays, school vacations and the northern hemisphere winter, and each sector experiences it differently depending on how it is reached and what surrounds it: a sector with a single road in congests at the peaks, and one without established retail depends more on guests arriving by car. It also matters that fixed costs do not fall in low season: the administration dues and the maintenance keep running. So the useful figure is not an annual average but the month-by-month spread, and who measured it.

In Castillogrande the typical deal is not a unit in a condominium but a house and its lot, which puts the weight of the file back on the chain of title to the land: you climb through the deeds to the parcelación, the original subdivision that created the block, because those platting deeds registered conditions, setbacks and easements that still bind and that are invisible from the street. There is no building manager to issue a paz y salvo, a no-arrears certificate, and no assembly to settle anything, so boundary questions with a neighbor are argued between private parties and what governs is the title and the survey, not a set of house rules. The counterparty is usually an old city family and, fairly often, a family company that owns the property: then you must decide whether to buy the real estate or the company's shares, two different transactions with different paperwork and different exposure, and request the certificado de existencia y representación, the corporate good-standing and signing-authority certificate, together with the resolution approving the sale. And because the neighborhood is fully built out, any construction is permitted on an already developed lot, with neighbors entitled to take part in the proceeding.

What is specific to Castillogrande

What to verify, step by step

1. Ask the building manager how many units in the building are in short-term rental and for how long, and ask for the month-by-month spread rather than an annual average.
2. Talk to two or three current owners who already operate and ask about their weakest month in recent years, not their best. The weak month is what defines cash flow.
3. Ask who produced any figure you are shown, by what method and over what period. A sales office projection and a manager's historical record are not the same document.
4. Test what you are told against the Castillogrande-specific conditions listed further down. That is what conditions the operation there, not the city's general trend.
5. Ask how access to the sector behaves at the seasonal peaks, because congestion and the way in affect whether a guest books a second time.
6. Request the fixed-cost series for the same period: without the cost beside it, an occupancy figure says nothing.

Mistakes that cost money

• Accepting an annual average occupancy. An average hides precisely the figure that matters: how many months a year the unit fails to cover its fixed costs.
• Taking the sales office number as a historical record. A projection is the seller's expectation, and nobody signs it.
• Comparing Castillogrande with another part of the city as though demand were the same. What draws a guest to each stretch of this coast differs, and access is part of that.

Frequently asked questions

Why do you not publish occupancy figures for Castillogrande?

Because we do not measure them and because they change by building and by year. Publishing a borrowed number would lend authority to something that has none. We would rather tell you whom to ask.

Who holds the real historical record?

The building manager and the owners who already operate. If nobody has it in writing, that too tells you something about the building.

Are official statistics useful?

They are useful for city-level context: DANE publishes housing and construction indicators, and the Lonja de Bolívar lists registered appraisers. Neither tells you what happens in your apartment.

Where to check it

• DANE — the building census, housing price indices and construction cost data
• Lonja de Propiedad Raíz de Bolívar — commercial appraisals and appraisers listed on the open register
• Registro Nacional de Turismo — whether a property may legally be used for tourist accommodation and who has registered it
• Alcaldía Mayor de Cartagena de Indias — property tax, betterment levies and District procedures
• Cartagena de Indias — the rules of the municipality Castillogrande belongs to

Official bodies. Specific figures are requested there, not copied from a listing.

Updated 2026-11-06