Real estate, with a drop of three percentage points, was the sector that lost the most relative weight within foreign investment between the two semesters
SANTO DOMINGO.– The Dominican real estate sector attracted US$915.2 million in foreign direct investment during 2025, equivalent to 18.2% of the national total, according to the 2025 Yearbook of Economic Statistics from the National Statistics Office (ONE), with figures from the Central Bank.
It was the country's third largest recipient sector, behind Tourism, with US$1,288.1 million and Energy with US$1,263.3 million, and ahead of Trade/Industry with US$589.9 million and Free Zones with US$437.9 million.
However, the comparison between the same semesters shows a relative loss of ground in the first half of 2025, when Real Estate represented 15.4% of the US$3,043.1 million that entered the country through foreign direct investment, which was US$469.0 million, according to table 18.7 of the document that the ONE published on September 14.
At the close of the first half of 2026, the sector's share fell to 12.4% of a total flow of US$3,276.5 million, according to the report released by the Central Bank on July 28, 2026.
The entity did not break down the exact amount by sector in that statement, but the percentage is equivalent to about US$406.3 million, 13.4% less than a year earlier, in a semester in which the country's total foreign investment grew 7.7%.
No other major recipient sector experienced such a significant decline in percentage points. Tourism fell from 21.6% to 20.1% of semi-annual investment, a drop of 1.5 points, and Mining declined from 14.0% to 12.4%, a decrease of 1.6 points, while Energy gained ground, rising from 24.7% to 27.8%.
Real estate, with a drop of three percentage points, was the sector that lost the most relative weight within foreign investment between the two semesters.
Credit for construction grows
Inside, the behavior is the opposite, according to table 9.8 of the same yearbook, which states that the loans that the Dominican bank allocated to the Construction sector went from RD$135,853.0 million in January to RD$167,401.4 million in December 2025, an increase of 23.2% in the year.
Loans for home acquisition, the category that finances the final buyer, rose in the same period from RD$411,866.2 million to RD$461,356.5 million, an increase of 12.0%, almost half of that rate.
The Superintendency of Banks (SB) separately confirmed that the mortgage portfolio closed 2025 at RD$443,170 million, with a year-on-year growth of 13.2%, some RD$51,532 million additional.
Credit to the Construction sector grew 26.1% year-on-year at the end of April 2026 and 23.7% at the end of May, according to reports from the Central Bank's Monthly Indicator of Economic Activity.
Credit for home purchases, on the other hand, advanced 11.4% year-on-year in the first quarter and 11.9% in March, according to data from the Superintendency of Banks collected by El Inmobiliario.
Financing for builders continues to grow at twice the rate of financing for buyers.
Behavior of the typologies
The third indicator that the yearbook allows to be broken down is the Direct Housing Construction Cost Index (ICDV), which the ONE calculates separately for four types: single-family one-level, single-family two-level, multi-family four-level and multi-family eight-level or more.
All four housing types ended the year practically where they started, with variations between -0.2% and 0.3% between January and December 2025, but they didn't get there by the same path. In October, while single-family homes with one level rose 1.16% and multi-family homes with four levels rose 0.91%, multi-family homes with eight or more levels jumped 2.41%, more than double the increase of any other type.
According to the ONE Yearbook, a month later that same category fell 2.38%, almost completely reversing the jump of October, while the others retreated less strongly and apartment buildings concentrated 57.3% of the building licenses granted in 2025, according to figures from the yearbook itself.
The ICDV does not allow us to know what proportion of those buildings specifically corresponds to the category of eight levels or more, but it does confirm that the typology with the most weight in new licenses was also the most hit by the price volatility of the year, in a sector that also saw its relative share within foreign direct investment reduced.
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