Zona 19

About Zona 19:

Zona 19 sits on the Calzada San Juan, the road that leaves zona 7 of the capital heading west into Mixco, about eleven kilometres by road from the city centre. Every neighbour is a Mixco colonia, Primero de Julio and Santa Marta, both in zona 5 of Mixco, among them, and to the north the colonia ends at the barranco Las Guacamayas. The street plan is a chessboard, with avenidas running from 5a to 13, numbers they only took in 1979 when the count was carried over from Santa Marta. Before that each avenida had a country’s name, Costa Rica, Alemania, Honduras, Washington, México, Brasil and Panamá among them, and some buses still show the old number or a name such as Quetzal on the windscreen. City buses run along the Calzada San Juan, Mixco’s Express buses from Primero de Julio pass close by, and the calzada is busy at rush hour in both directions.

La Florida began in the early 1950s, when the Aycinena family lotified the potrero El Espinal, part of the Finca El Naranjo, in the years of the agrarian reform; a second section, the Segunda Florida, followed in 1953. Families from other zones of the capital and from the provinces bought lots that had no piped water, electricity, drainage or paved streets. That lack of services is what drove the split from Mixco, and once the colonia was in the capital, the old football field became the Mercado Cantonal, now the Mercado La Florida. The market has outgrown its site more than once, and around it the colonia filled with clothing shops, tiendas, salons, small workshops, comedores and bars, so many people here work a few blocks from home.

The Universidad Mariano Gálvez runs its Centro Universitario La Florida on 6a avenida, teaching law, business administration, accounting, psychology, social work and systems engineering. The Escuela Panamericana, the station of the Bomberos Municipales and Comisaría 16 of the Policía Nacional Civil all date from the first years after the move to the capital, and all are still here. The parish of Nuestra Señora del Rosario keeps a replica of the Cristo Negro de Esquipulas and a large bell from 1957. In the 1960s the Edificio El Coliseo on 1a calle was the colonia’s theatre, and La Florida has turned out marimbas, an estudiantina and songwriters such as Gerardo Marroquín Rivas, who wrote Los Inquilinos and Los Autobuses.

About 20,000 people live in the zone’s 1.1 km². The first lots were unusually large, around nine metres by twenty-seven, with a courtyard for washing and cooking behind a single room. Today many houses stand on fronts of three to four and a half metres, built upward as families grew and as rooms were added to rent. Owners tend to be families who have been in the colonia for decades; tenants include people saving to buy in La Florida or next door, and newcomers from the interior who came for work. That is why so many houses here earn something: a shop on the ground floor, rooms or apartments upstairs, or both.

Houses in Zona 19:

Almost all of the stock is single-family houses that grew in stages. A common shape is a front of about 4.4 metres running 27 metres deep, with the garage and living rooms on the ground floor, bedrooms on the second and a room and terrace added on a third. Smaller pieces exist, down to lots of around 54 m² with a front under three and a half metres, and so do a few wider lots of about nine metres, closer to the original size. Among the houses for sale in Zona 19 you will also find buildings that already hold several units, such as a two-level house with a large terrace divided into eight apartments. Parts of the colonia, 7a avenida among them, are classed as residential and semi-commercial, which is why a shopfront under the family home is so ordinary here.

Rentals in Zona 19:

Most of what is let is rooms and small apartments: independent rooms, one-bedroom units of around 35 m², and furnished second-floor apartments for one or two people, some only a few houses off the Calzada San Juan. Whole houses come up too, including large three-level ones with twenty-odd rooms that suit an office, a school or a small hotel. With so much of the housing divided into units, the rentals in Zona 19 are usually upstairs from the owner or next to a family business. Ask whether water and electricity are on a separate meter before you agree the rent.

Commercial Property in Zona 19:

Business space in La Florida is mostly at street level inside houses: a locale under the home, opening straight onto the pavement. Houses a short walk from the market with a usable street front suit a tienda, a depósito or a small workshop. Foot traffic is heaviest around the Mercado La Florida and along the Calzada San Juan, where the Plaza Florida shopping centre stands. Before buying for a business, check the authorised land use, where a delivery van can stop, and whether there is any parking at all on a street this narrow.

FAQ:

• Is Zona 19 part of Mixco or of Guatemala City?

  Guatemala City. La Florida left Mixco in 1958 under Decreto 1183 of Congress and has been a zone of the capital ever since, even though Mixco surrounds it. Property tax (IUSI) and building licences go through the Municipalidad de Guatemala, and the postal code is 01019. Addresses are still sometimes written as “zona 19, Mixco”, and the colonias across the street are zona 5 of Mixco, so confirm which side of the line a house is on.

• What should I check on the title of a house in La Florida?

  Lots here have been split and built on for seventy years, so start by comparing what you measure on site with the area and boundaries on the finca at the property registry. Make sure the seller owns the whole finca and not an undivided share inherited with siblings, and that it is free of liens. Ask for the municipal licence for any level added later, and check that the IUSI has been paid to the capital’s municipality rather than to Mixco. On the edge of the colonia, confirm the finca really lies inside zona 19.

• Why don’t the avenue numbers on buses match the street signs?

  The avenidas were renumbered in 1979, starting the count from Santa Marta, so the old 1a avenida became 5a and the old 9a became 13. Some buses kept the old numbers and names, so a bus marked 8 or Quetzal runs up today’s 13 avenida. When you arrange a viewing, use the current number from the street sign.

• How do I get from Zona 19 to the rest of the city?

  The Calzada San Juan is the main link, east into zona 7 of the capital and west into Mixco, and most city buses use it. Mixco’s Express buses from Primero de Julio also pass nearby. The calzada is busy at peak hours, so test the trip at the time you would actually make it.

• Can I buy a house that already has a shop or apartments in it?

  Yes, and in La Florida that is common. Check that each unit has its own water and electricity meter, that the tenancies are in writing, and that the added levels and the commercial use are authorised by the municipality. A shop rented to a third party will also change how you value the house, so ask what it pays and how long the lease runs.