Over the past decade, Chile’s real estate industry has experienced major growth and this is reflected both in the quantity and the quality of new building. Most development has occurred in Chile’s cities, which are ever more extended and complex and clearly share the problems of expanding urban centers worldwide.

This new growth has brought with it equally significant social changes: the so-called "revolution of expectations", which has created awareness of people's demands for a better quality of life. It is also related to another process: the increasing participation of ordinary citizens in public decision-making processes.

At the same time, the State is increasingly willing to widen the scope of private sector involvement in housing, urbanization and land use, reflecting its belief that fiscal resources and regulatory faculties are excellent tools for stimulating much larger private investments than the public sector could finance.

In response to these new trends, the Ministry of Housing and Urbanization has undertaken the task of promoting urban projects that offer real and diversified opportunities for the private sector, while also improving quality of life in Chile. In each case, these projects are aligned with the Ministry's overall policies on housing, urban development and land use.

The new urban developments that are currently being implemented typically, for example, incorporate new designs and improved use of space in housing and give priority to landscape features, such as coastlines, riverbanks or lake shores, as triggers for new business opportunities. Similarly, they are designed to take advantage of existing infrastructure with new, fast road connections and transport systems and include generous allocations of green areas and public spaces, as well as other facilities, required by the inhabitants of new neighborhoods.

In terms of management, these projects are based on 10 -and 20- year urban planning horizons and involve close coordination among different public sector agencies, as well as permitting citizen participation and the incorporation of the private sector in land use transactions, the provision of housing, roads and other facilities and in the overall development of the real estate industry.

The resources assigned to these projects are one key indicator of their significance. The fiscal investment budget reaches US$ 489.6 million, of which almost 30% has already been committed, and has been planned in such a way as to generate private sector investment opportunities estimated to be worth almost US$ 2.7 billion in urban projects alone, of which two thirds is expected to materialize by March 2006. In addition, tourist projects awarded in 2002 are estimated to represent private investment of US$ 200 million.

Opportunities for the private sector exist across the real estate industry and include housing for different income groups, hotels and other tourist infrastructure, the retail sector from neighborhood stores to shopping malls, educational, healthcare and other facilities for new neighborhoods, cultural and ecological recreational complexes and land for industrial development.

These projects are located throughout Chile from the northern cities of Iquique (Region I), Calama and Antofagasta (Region II), Copiapó and Vallenar (Region III) to Valparaíso, Viña del Mar and Quillota (Region V) and Santiago in the center of the country and, to the south, in Concepción and San Pedro de la Paz (Region VIII), Temuco (Region IX), Puerto Montt (Region X) and Punta Arenas (Region XII). Tourist projects outside the main cities are also to be found across the length and breadth of the country.

As part of its responsibility for administering public property throughout Chile, the National Heritage Ministry, which has undergone a rapid process of modernization, is also active in the field of real estate, implementing policies designed to attract private investment not only in tourism and industrial and urban development, but also in environmental conservation. Based on studies of the development potential of different sites, the Ministry is taking an active role in putting land on the market for specific projects, thereby ensuring balanced and harmonious territorial development.

Eight projects -estimated to represent an investment of at least US$ 80 million- are currently available to private investors. The Ministry’s plans for 2003 are ambitious, but realistic. They involve around twenty new projects, including industrial and urban developments in Arica and Iquique (Region I) and Antofagasta and Calama (Region II), as well as tourist initiatives in River Puelo (Region X) and eleven sites for tourist development in Patagonia (Regions XI and XII).

-Source: CHILE, your best bet. Foreign Investment Committee