FLY & BUY | ONIX LIVING
What if the real luxury was to get your time back?
Why more and more people are choosing to live – and invest – in coastal cities.
There is a question that lately I can’t stop thinking about: how many hours of our lives are spent simply moving?
Hours in traffic. Hours waiting. Hours living in a hurry. Hours coming home tired.
And the strongest thing is that we often normalize living like this. Waking up early to cross an entire city. Eat quickly. Live accelerated. Wait for the weekend to feel a little freedom. And repeat the routine again.
A few years ago, success meant living in the middle of a big city. Today, I feel like the conversation has changed. Now many people are looking for something different: more time, more tranquility, more quality of life.
And I think that’s why coastal cities have become much more than tourist destinations. They are becoming places where people really want to live.
Coastal cities have something difficult to explain until you live it
Time moves differently. People have breakfast without haste. Distances feel lighter. Stress goes down. The weather changes your mood almost without you noticing.
And perhaps that is why so many people are rethinking where they want to live, work or spend the next years of their lives. Especially in places like Cancun and the Riviera Maya, where there is a very difficult combination to find: international connectivity, constant growth, nature, modern infrastructure and a quality of life that simply feels different.
Just to put it in perspective: Cancun International Airport mobilized 29.3 million passengers in 2025 — above its own pre-pandemic record of 27 million, remaining the busiest airport in all of Mexico and Latin America. The slight drop compared to 2024 was due to global restrictions on air capacity, not a lack of demand: in December, the four airports in Quintana Roo set an all-time record of 766 operations in a single day.
And the more people seek this lifestyle, the more the value of investing in these cities also grows. Because in the end, the capital gain does not only come from new buildings or modern developments. It also comes from something much more powerful: the number of people who want to be there.
The trend is real – and the numbers bear it out
The numbers confirm it. Globally, it is estimated that there are already between 40 and 50 million digital nomads in the world, and the number continues to grow. Mexico is the absolute leader in Latin America and ranks sixth in the world as the preferred destination for this profile. Within Mexico, Cancun and Playa del Carmen consistently top the list.
For a long time, living near the sea was seen as a luxury reserved for vacations or retirement. Today, that has changed radically.
After the pandemic, millions of people began to prioritize things that once seemed secondary: personal time, well-being, work flexibility, and quality of life. Remote work opened up the possibility of living from virtually anywhere. And that caused something very interesting: many people stopped choosing cities just for work… and they began to choose them by lifestyle.
The numbers confirm it. Globally, it is estimated that there are already between 40 and 50 million digital nomads in the world, and the number continues to grow. Mexico is the absolute leader in Latin America and ranks sixth in the world as the preferred destination for this profile. Within Mexico, Cancun and Playa del Carmen consistently top the list.
But it’s not just young nomads. Since the pandemic, Mexico has seen an 80% increase in U.S. citizens obtaining temporary resident visas. From January to November 2023 alone, more than 300,000 regular immigrants entered the country, bringing the total number of foreigners residing in Mexico to more than 1.2 million.
All this generates something very important for the real estate market: constant demand. And where there is constant demand, there is usually growth. That is why properties in tourist cities tend to have a very attractive behavior in terms of capital gains and rents.
The market backs it up with numbers
This is where the story becomes especially interesting for those thinking about investing.
Quintana Roo is not only growing in tourism — it leads the real estate capital gain in all of Mexico. While Mexico City recorded a growth in the value of its properties of less than 7%, Quintana Roo closed the first quarter of 2025 with 12.2% growth, more than double the inflation rate of the same period.
Today there are more than 400 developments under construction and in pre-sale throughout the Riviera Maya. And in the state, investments of more than 300 million dollars are projected in the real estate sector in the next two years.
Why? Because the demand does not stop. The region closed 2025 with 19.4 million international visitors in Cancun, a hotel occupancy of 85% and an average of 500–550 daily flights, with records of up to 686 on peak days.
That’s not a trendy destination. It is an expanding economy.
“You’re not just buying a property in a beautiful place. You’re entering markets that continue to expand year after year.”
What changes when you live it
The first time I spent a long time in the Mexican Caribbean I understood something very simple: life feels different when you are not surviving the rhythm of the city.
Here the days start differently. The weather changes your mood. The sea changes your energy. The journeys are shorter. People are living in less of a hurry. And little by little you begin to ask yourself: why not live like this more often?
I think that’s what’s happening with a lot of people from Mexico, the United States, Canada, and different parts of the world. They are no longer just looking to invest for the sake of investing. They look for places where they can enjoy their time. Especially those who are entering a stage where they value tranquility more than chaos.
And honestly… makes sense. After so many years of working, shouldn’t there be a time to live at your own pace?
Fly & Buy: coming to see it changes everything
There are decisions that are not made by watching renders from a screen. There are places you need to walk. Feel. To live even if it is for a few days.
Because it’s one thing to see pictures of the Caribbean… and it is quite another to wake up here. Understand what it feels like to drive without spending hours in traffic. Eating in front of the sea on any given Tuesday. See sunsets every day. Imagine a routine where stress is no longer a normal part of your life.
That’s why Fly & Buy by Onix Living was born. Not as a simple real estate tour, but as an experience to personally discover what it means to live and invest in a coastal city.
The idea is simple: come, get to know the destination, explore the developments, understand the growth potential of the area and visualize what your life could look like here.
Because many times you arrive thinking only about an investment… And you end up wondering if this might be the life you really want.
Here you are not just buying a property. You are entering a region that continues to grow year after year thanks to international tourism, foreign investment, connectivity and the high demand of people who want to live near the sea.
Because in the end, I think we’re all looking for something similar.
More time. More calm. More real moments.
And maybe that’s why more and more people are moving away from asking, “Where should I invest?” to asking, “Where do I want to live my life?”
- ASUR. Annual traffic report 2025. Updated elquintanarroense.com.mx
- 24 Hours QRoo. Historical record: 766 operations in one day. Updated 24horasqroo.mx
- 4ravelScrape. Digital Nomad Trends 2025: more than 50 million worldwide. Updated yousuariofinal.com
- Infobae / BBVA. 40 million digital nomads circulate around the planet. Updated infobae.com
- BBVA. Mexico: sixth world destination for digital nomads, first in LATAM. Updated bbva.com
- INM. Figures of foreign residents in Mexico, January-November 2023. inm.gob.mx
- El Financiero / 4S Real Estate. Quintana Roo and Baja California lead in capital gains. elfinanciero.com.mx
- 10Equip Magazine / Coldwell Banker. Real Estate boom in Quintana Roo. revistaequipar.com