Mexico: 65% of Industrial Tenants Are Foreign, but Over 90% of Investment Is Domestic

The main difference between Mexico City, Guadalajara and the rest of the industrial corridors is their vocation. In most markets—except for Mexicali and Tijuana—manufacturing accounts for more than half of the tenants, while in these two hubs, it represents only 20% to 40%, dominated instead by companies focused on local or regional distribution, e-commerce, and business services—more domestic than export-driven sectors.

That lower presence of manufacturing, however, does not fully explain their lighter dependence on foreign capital.

In Tijuana and Mexicali, where manufacturing also accounts for less than 40% of tenants, foreign firms continue to dominate, thanks to their export focus. And if you zoom in on other markets, the picture shifts: although Monterrey and Querétaro overall are majority-foreign, three of their submarkets—Monterrey, Santa Catarina and 5 de Febrero—are the only exceptions outside Mexico City and Guadalajara.

In these submarkets the distinction is not the absence of exports, but the balance with domestic demand. In 5 de Febrero (Querétaro), companies in capital goods, construction, and logistics prevail; in the municipality of Monterrey, food companies and distribution operators; and in Santa Catarina, firms in capital goods, mining, food, packaging, and logistics. This diversified base—participating in export chains while being firmly anchored in domestic demand—allows local firms to maintain a presence that has faded elsewhere.

These exceptions reveal a double thread: scale and the destination of demand. Thus, where operations are export-oriented and leases average large footprints, multinationals dominate both in number and in square footage. And where the vocation leans toward distribution for the domestic market—such as food, logistics, capital goods for construction and industry, and business services—local firms gain weight in tenant counts, though not necessarily in space, as foreign players tend to hold the most extensive facilities.

Even so, as visible as their footprint may be across Mexico’s industrial landscape, the real-estate presence of foreign firms far outweighs their actual weight in the economy. Of all the private capital invested in the country each year, less than one in ten pesos comes from foreign direct investment.²

That gap is telling: seeing parks full of global logos does not mean Mexico’s growth depends on foreign capital to the same degree. While much of the productive infrastructure is foreign-owned, the investment that sustains productivity comes mostly from domestic resources. That internal capital base gives the country a measure of autonomy and stability against swings in foreign direct investment.

To explore data by market, submarket and type of tenant, visit SiiLA Market Analytics or write to contacto@siila.com.mx.

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¹ Data from INEGI’s 2025 National Statistical Directory of Economic Units (DENUE), downloaded September 17, 2025, and filtered for the manufacturing sector (SCIAN 31–33). Establishments were grouped according to the official ranges of personnel employed: Micro (0–10), Small (11–50), Medium (51–250), and Large (251+). Percentages were obtained by dividing each group by the sector total.

² Author’s calculations with data from INEGI and the Mexican Economy Secretary. In 2024, Mexico’s GDP reached 35.36 trillion pesos (≈US$1.94 trillion), and gross fixed capital formation—total investment—represented 21% of GDP (≈US$408 billion) [INEGI, Quarterly GDP, 4Q-2024]. Foreign direct investment totaled US$36.9 billion [Mexican Economy Secretary, FDI Report 4Q-2024], equivalent to roughly 9% of that total investment.