Living in Santa Fe

Santa Fe covers about ten colonias on the western edge of Mexico City, straddling Álvaro Obregón and Cuajimalpa and sitting a few hundred metres higher than the centre of the city. Offices and towers concentrate around Santa Fe Centro Ciudad and Lomas de Santa Fe, home to the Universidad Iberoamericana and bordering Parque La Mexicana just over the Cuajimalpa line. Buildings are large and come with enough inside them that a lot of the week gets resolved without going out. Santa Fe La Loma is the gated, quiet end and the priciest to rent, while Santa Fe Cuajimalpa spreads west toward the highway and the forest.

What to consider before renting

No Metro or Metrobús line runs inside Santa Fe. What changed the picture is El Insurgente, the commuter train whose Santa Fe station sits next to the Centro Santa Fe mall and runs east to Observatorio, where Metro Line 1 takes over. Everything else leans on RTP buses, concessioned routes and company shuttles, and Av. Vasco de Quiroga is the spine that seizes up whenever it is blocked. The mall and the big supermarkets are close by, but sidewalks are narrow and the terrain is steep, so you drive to them. If a shorter drive toward Reforma matters more, Bosques de las Lomas sits between Santa Fe and the Lomas corridor.