In July, the building permits delivered in Chillán totaled 53,693 square meters, the highest monthly figure this year, as well as the best result for July in the last five years, according to the report prepared by the study unit of the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC) Chillán, with data from the Municipality of Chillán.
The authorized area in Chillán in July of this year represents an increase of 8,893% compared to June 2023, the month in which the permits totaled just 597 m2. Likewise, it is equivalent to an increase of 711% compared to July 2022, when 6,617 m2 were authorized.
However, the president of the CChC Chillán, Ricardo Salman Aburdene, explained that this is an exceptional figure, which is attributed to three housing projects that obtained approval in July and totaling 664 houses.
In fact, when reviewing the authorized area in previous months, modest numbers are observed for January (3,901 m2), February (1,340 m2), March (17,367 m2), April (9,927 m2), May (12,893 m2) and June (597 m2).
Regarding the building permits for July, 96.6% of the area corresponds to housing; 2.1% to trade; and 1.3% to wineries.
In this sense, Salman stressed that statistics confirm that the sector is facing a contraction and that the numbers are still below pre-pandemic levels.
In an interview on Radio La Discusión, the union leader specified that, in cumulative terms, in the first seven months of the year the commune of Chillán has an authorized area of 99,718 m2, a figure that is below the 101,950 m2 of January-July 2022 and very far from the 184,512 m2 of January-July 2019. On the other hand, it does exceed the permits accumulated on the same date of 2021 (81,025 m2) and 2020 (80,861 m2).
“In the last four years we have obtained around half the building permits compared to what we had in 2019, when we had a significant volume. Looking at these figures for the month of July, in 2019 we had 184,500 m2 of permits and today we have 99,000 m2. So, the truth is that what has been happening with the permits in the last four years is not very promising, that causes concern; Of course, 80% of these permits correspond to housing and are followed by commerce and education”, commented the businessman.
depressed item
The building permits provide a projection of the behavior of the sector in the coming months, which is why, according to Salman, a recovery in construction is not in sight in the short term, which, in terms of housing, affects the satisfaction of demand local, although it ruled out that the fulfillment of the goal of the Emergency Housing Plan promoted by the government is at risk.
“It is not so much a problem of land, the land is there, but it is a problem of investment, public investment, investment in roads, access for families to financing for housing, which are long-term financing, of twenty to thirty years, and we hope that all these issues can be resolved in the future, because the truth is that all this has been greatly affected, by this uncertainty due to the changes, the structural changes, the major reforms that we are Seeing today what the country is facing, this is delaying decisions and making it more difficult for families to also have access to financing”, stated the CChC Chillán helmsman.
