Colombia’s 35% Steel Tariff to Raise Housing Prices, Camacol Warns

Written on 03/24/2026
jhoanbaron
Colombia’s new 35% steel tariff under Decree 0264 will significantly raise housing prices. Construction workers on a building site. The Colombian Chamber of Construction (Camacol) warned that the government’s recent decision to raise the steel tariff to 35% will increase material costs and ultimately drive up housing prices for Colombian families. Credit: Mostafameraji / Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).

Colombia issued Decree 0264 on March 16, 2026, raising the import tariff on 14 steel and metalworking product categories to 35% for all countries that do not hold a free trade agreement with Colombia, with the measure taking effect April 1 of this year for an initial period of one year, according to the official text published by the Ministry of Commerce and cited by La Republica and Infobae Colombia. The steel tariff affects housing prices.

The Camara Colombiana de la Construccion (Camacol) issued an immediate warning that the new housing cost pressure would translate directly into higher prices for Colombian families, calculating that a 35% tariff on steel inputs would raise the steel and iron component of construction costs by 3.9% and push the final sale price of a housing unit up by approximately 2.2%, without yet accounting for the additional effect of existing tariffs on ceramic products used in the same projects.

A third cost shock on an industry already at a breaking point

Colombia’s construction sector entered 2026 in the worst shape it had seen in more than a decade, and Decree 0264 arrives as the third simultaneous housing cost pressure rather than the first, making the combination more damaging than each individual measure would be in isolation.

Camacol president Guillermo Herrera presented the sector’s accumulated damage at the organization’s annual assembly on March 18, 2026: 33 consecutive months of declining housing starts, a return to activity levels comparable to 2012, a loss of 136,000 direct jobs, and a cumulative construction cost increase of between 16% and 20% over the same period, according to the gremio’s own figures.​

The steel tariff joins two other cost pressures already working through the sector in 2026: a 23% minimum-wage increase that Camacol estimates will raise construction costs on new projects by between 10% and 15%, given that labor represents between 20% and 30% of total direct costs, and a pending government draft decree that would cap social interest housing (VIS) prices in pesos rather than linking them to a variable index.

Two industries, one decree, and conflicting policy objectives

Colombia’s government justified Decree 0264 as a response to a documented import crisis in the domestic steel and metalworking industry, with the decree’s technical rationale citing import-volume surges of between 5% and over 290% in specific product categories during January to August 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, driven primarily by imports from China, Russia, Turkey, and India, all countries that do not hold free trade agreements with Colombia and all of which carry significant state production subsidies.

The decree modifies Decree 1881 of 2021, covers 14 specific tariff subpartidas (tariff classification codes) including steel bars, wire rods, welded tubes, barbed wire, nails, staples, wire manufactured products, and bolts, and subjects the measure to a formal review by the Comite de Asuntos Aduaneros, Arancelario y de Comercio Exterior at the end of the one year to assess whether the tariff should continue, be adjusted, or be removed entirely.

Steel tariffs vs. housing affordability

Herrera challenged the policy’s internal logic directly, asking: “How does the government expect housing prices to fall if at the same time it makes production more expensive?” Colombia’s construction sector employs more than 1 million people directly, against a domestic steel workforce that, while significant, represents a fraction of that total, meaning the tariff that protects one labor pool simultaneously adds housing cost pressure to a sector that generates far more employment.

Decree 0264 puts Colombia in a position where two legitimate industrial protection goals pull in opposite directions, and with housing starts already down 56% in January 2026 alone, the government’s one-year evaluation window will arrive at a moment when the construction sector will have little remaining capacity to absorb further cost increases, making the Comite de Asuntos Aduaneros’ April 2027 review one of the more consequential regulatory decisions Colombia’s housing policy will face in the medium term.