Colombian Firms Adding “Cepeda Clause” to Contracts Ahead of Presidential Runoff

Builders cite legal uncertainty; Cepeda’s own plan reads more moderate

As Colombia heads into its June 21, 2026 presidential runoff, some companies are writing a contractual escape hatch into their deals — a provision the construction trade group Camacol Antioquia calls the “Cláusula Cepeda,” or “Cepeda clause” — that would let them pause or unwind agreements if leftist candidate Iván Cepeda wins, according to Teleantioquia and a televised news report. The accounts come from business representatives describing market sentiment; the prevalence of the clauses has not been independently quantified.

According to Eduardo Loaiza Posada, manager of Camacol Antioquia, “we know that the implementation of the ‘Cepeda clause’ exists in the market.” He said the possibility of a Cepeda win “generates so much uncertainty that many businesspeople have considered that, in the event of his victory, they would unwind deals already agreed.” Loaiza Posada framed the issue as one of confidence: “When there is doubt, uncertainty follows — and uncertainty is legal insecurity,” he told Teleantioquia, adding that “legal insecurity makes investment frightened.”

The trade group says the clauses surfaced across several productive sectors — housing, construction, and the financing of hotels and logistics centers — and that some projects have been shelved outright. “Even companies that were planning to build a new institutional or corporate headquarters have told the builders: ‘Let’s get the contract ready, but if this candidate wins, we undo the deal,'” Loaiza Posada said, according to Teleantioquia. He added that the hesitation is not limited to domestic players, citing instances of international funds and hotel chains reconsidering whether to finance or lend their brand to projects.

In a separate televised report, a real estate agent confirmed that some home purchase-and-sale contracts now include a clause letting the buyer withdraw based on market expectations and on changes to government policy and housing subsidies. The agent said the provision is “very much named at the moment” and is meant to offer investors an additional guarantee against a continuation of the current government’s policies, allowing a party to exit “without any penalty.”

“When there is doubt, uncertainty follows — and uncertainty is legal insecurity.” — Eduardo Loaiza Posada, manager of Camacol Antioquia

The practice is not new, and it is not unique to Cepeda. The same reports note that a “Cláusula Petro” appeared during the 2018 and 2022 campaigns, when Gustavo Petro was a candidate, transferring political expectations onto investment decisions in the same way. Legal commentators have described these as conditional clauses that are valid under Colombian private law: as Portafolio and El Tiempo reported in 2022, a contract can lawfully be made contingent on a future event, including an election outcome, and undone if that event occurs. By that reading, the “Cepeda clause” is a recurring feature of Colombian electoral cycles — a form of risk management — rather than a novel maneuver.

It also lands in a housing market already under strain for reasons that predate the runoff. According to figures from Camacol cited in the broadcast report, more than 134,000 households abandoned plans to buy a home between 2022 and February 2026, a 130% increase in the social-interest (VIS) segment. The report attributed much of that to regulatory uncertainty and policy decisions such as cuts to housing subsidies, alongside higher costs and rising interest rates. Data from the portal Finca Raíz cited in the same report showed sale prices climbing above inflation, with increases of up to 13%, as fewer project launches tightened supply. Colombia builds a little over 100,000 homes a year, the report noted, while DANE figures suggest 230,000 to 250,000 new families form annually — a structural gap that the slowdown widens.

Cepeda’s campaign has not publicly responded to the clause, and his published platform is more measured than the business alarm implies. His roughly 118-page plan, built around the idea of an “economy for life,” does propose a larger role for the state, a stronger internal market, and an emphasis on the peasant, popular and solidarity economy. But as La Silla Vacía and El Colombiano have reported, the document is more moderate than several positions President Petro has defended: it does not call for eliminating the independence of the central bank, a constituent assembly, or forced investments, and the campaign has sought to present a more pragmatic version of the current government’s agenda.

The runoff offers voters two markedly different economic visions — Abelardo de la Espriella campaigning to shrink the state, cut taxes and lean on the private sector, and Cepeda proposing deeper state intervention and expanded social programs — which is what the contractual hedging ultimately reflects: uncertainty about which direction policy will take. Cepeda advanced to the second round after the May 31 first round, in which he took 40.9% of the vote to De la Espriella’s 43.7%. With days to go, the market is watching the result and the signals it will send for housing and investment policy.