Chile Forum

Hello everyone.
My better half and I will be starting our search this weekend for a parcela (preferably with a house on it!) in the 5th region - hopefully something in Cóncon, Viña or very very close to that region.
We'll be looking for around 5000mts2 or a bit smaller depending on price. I have been searching extensively on the internet (using Portalinmobilario, Elmecurio and a host of other independent estate agent type websites) but don't really like the look of what I see, or when I do,it seems overpriced.

Reading many other posts in this property/construction forum, I feel better equipped than I would have 6 months ago. And as mentioned somewhere else, it seems that it is infinitely better to go out and look for your own piece of land and knock on doors where you see the 'se vende' sign than to skim through websites all day that only list a few, or visiting estate agents with their obscene commisions and lack of knowledge.

And now a few questions, as always.

1. Does anyone have any working knowledge of parcelas in the Cóncon region?
2. When a parcela isn't urbanizada, how much difficulty and cost is there in getting it so?
3. I read a post in here that said prices for a 5000mts2 would be around $2,000 - $20,000 US. Surely this is based on southern Chile and not up around the 5th region? I ask because some of the website prices I have seen for go to double that number.
4. Regarding other posts about prefab wooden homes, does anyone here actually live in one? And what are they really like? Would they stand up to having a family live in one?
and
5. Does anyone have any general advice on the above?

Cheers,
Jamie

jgb78uk wrote:5. Does anyone have any general advice on the above?

Hello Jamie. You lucky dog you. I'm jealous.

The prices will generally have very little basis in reality or common sense as you or me see it.

From what I've seen those prefab's look a bit thin, buy a good Bosca. Or maybe do some insulating? ... I'm sure you'd get funny looks from your neighbors but you'd be warm.

yea, not all prefab companies are the same. There are a few around the central region with better reputations. Too many just hang a "Canadian home" sign out front, and build paper homes.

Yea, those prices are more what around what you would find in Southern Chile. Even around Temuco twice that price is not terribly unusual. For that area, 5,000 square meters is a big chunk of land. They put 20 floor buildings on that near the beach. Much of it is going to depend so much on the local perception of the place. If you are competing with a lot of people looking for summer vacation homes from Santiago, your price is going to go up.

You are off on the right foot. Get out and check. Do keep in mind however that a lot of the knock on the door type techniques are not going to be as useful in the central region. The owners a lot of times don't live near the properties, and in the areas you are look they were bought up for investment purposes long ago.

We are about to close a purchase for a client on 5,000 square meter lot near the beach for a client a bit North of the area where you are looking ( can not tell you where until the deal is finalized ). The final sale price is about 10.5 million pesos. That should give you more or less a an idea. For cheaper land you will most likely need to get off the coast, or look much more north or south.

Really 10 million for 5,000 square meters anywhere near the ocean is kind of standard, in easily accessible locations in Chile. There are cheaper properties around, or perhaps more land for your money, but that would be fairly close to an average.

We have clients buying 5,000 square meter lots along the coast as far south as the Bio Bio region, and going rates are still around about 10 million pesos. Some like Pichilemu are going for around 20 or 30 million and up. Cheap deals will be in the more obscure locations. You also will pay a certain price for that obscurity.

Remember in the overall cost of building a home, the cost of the property in Chile will likely be one of the cheaper things. Once the house is built, you may wish you had spent an extra say 5 million pesos to double the value of the home with a better location, or even to have a home a little closer to town, a better view, or whatever.

As you'd see by many of my other posts, we've toyed with the idea of living in or < NO EMAIL > Santiago, but life's too short to breathe in all that crap every day and to have to look over your shoulder every few minutes.

Yes, I'll feel a lot better on the weekend when we actually go out there and have a look at whatever places are on offer.
Thinking about it, 5000mts is a lot of land - roughy 70 metres by 70 - and probably we would look for a little less if it'll be cheaper, especially if as you say much of that area was bought up as investments many years ago.
I just hope there is something good and reasonable in or around Cóncon or nearby - it doesn't even have to be anywhere near the beach.

And,
what about these places that don't have the electrical, sewage and gas installations already in the parcela - is it expensive to get it all installed/urbanizada?
Anyone have the experience?

There are so many factors involved, that it would be hard to give you a real answer on that one. It is all very dependent on the local city, and how they have implemented the urban planning. Some smaller towns don't even have a urban planning department, but that is not typical around the central region.

If you are in a high growth town for example, with lots of say big buildings going up, things will be very bureaucratic. On the other hand, they may be more organized. Really it is a town to town thing.

It also depends on the particular land. Running power lines say 5,000 meters in from the nearest road can be expensive. Add in cost of the potential problems such as are there city sewer and water lines, or are you on your own and need to drill. Remember, if you need to drill water rights are an issue and they are sold separate from the property.

To give you an idea of the starting numbers, your base no frills cheap as it gets urbanization in a small town in a remote area of Patagonia (likely your best case scenario) with little to no red tape involved, you are going to be looking at least 3 million pesos to make electricity, water, and septic happen on your property. Again, that is as cheap as it gets for an independent system. On the other hand, if there is city infrastructure just at the curb, it could be much cheaper. I would still say about 3 million pesos is at least what it is going to cost, and better to figure it could be up to 10 million.

Really without a town, a property, and some research, I really would not be able to give you any type of useful answer. I am just dropping these numbers off the top of my head. Don't quote me on them in any way.

jgb78uk, my two cents:

I wouldn't expect anything less than 10 or 12 mln. anywhere near Concon. In fact, a friend of mine bought an "urbanizado" lot of 1400 sq. m close to Concon (Mantagua) for about 20 mln, and it was a year ago...

I would estimate getting water and "postacion electrica" to my parcela to be around 1 mln. Besides, I will have to buy a "planta de tratamiento" which is another 800 000 to 1 mln.

I'm sure I wouldn't want to live in a standard chilean prefab home. Again, my estimate of the construction costs would be around 15UF (U$600) per square meter if you want to get something decent.

Ventisquero,
Thanks for the reply, it's very interesting.
And a coincidence too that we more or less spent all day Saturday looking around Mantagua. We saw one or two parcelas we liked a lot and a few we didn't. Yes they can be pricey, too, very pricey. But we are going again next weekend to look around other areas. Maybe even the other side of Valparaiso, near Laguna Verde.


With regards to your friend who bought the 1400mts2 parcela in Mantagua for 20Milliones, did it have a spectacular view? Or a property attached? or something even better?

I only ask because our favourite from Saturday was a parcela of around +5000mts2 in Mantagua for the same price of 20 Milliones. I don't know if you could really call it 'Urbanizada' because the electricity post was 30 metres from the property, there was a water pipe in the far corner of the parcela that was being used to irrigate the next parcela (the owner lived there and owns many parcelas)... I´m not really a constrcution type person and therefore don't really know the exact definition of 'urbanizada'...

Speaking about my friend who paid 20 mln for a 1400 m2 lot, yes, it does have an ocean view, no property attached though. In fact, you can check the place out if you google "lomas de Mantagua" (they have a website, but I'm not sure I can post links). Besides, I don't want to promote them in any way, I do think that their prices are unreasonably expensive. Honestly, it was a typical "gringo purchase," I would never buy anything like that.

I have an impression that water view almost doubles the value of parcelas in central Chile. I don't care for ocean, so I intentionally looked for something in the interior. If you are not a big ocean fan, you may want to look for a parcela around Quillota or Limache (you can get to Valparaiso from Limache by metro!)

I suggest you consider to rent during 1-2 years before to buy, otherwise the odds you will pay in excess or get trapped with a land who later will dissapoint you will be high. I was 4 years waiting and looking before purchase my home, I fell in love with many properties but always made up my mind to think twice, now I am happy to do it so, nothing worse or more risky than purchase a property in a hurry, specially in Chile, where you can find sometimes incredible opportunities with patience and money in hand

yea, I would second Tom's advice to rent in a place. The contacts you make in the course of deciding if you like the place, will likely cover the cost of renting. For example, if the going rate in an area is 10 - 20 million pesos and over the course of 6 months or a year you make contact with someone that has a sweet deal on a good property for 7 million, you are gold. Also, nothing worse than buying something and deciding you don't like it after a year.

We just spent another weekend looking around parcelas on the coast in region V.

What really becomes apparent the more you look is that, yes, the prices have no regularity at all - no science, no trend. There seems to be no formula regarding the land on offer. i.e. a fairly ugly, heavily sloping, muddy, damp parcela in the woods will cost millions of pesos more than a flat, urbanizada, green parcela in a condiminium - with views of mountains and maybe even the coast!

We also visited the other side of Valparaiso to see what it was like around Laguna Verde. Upon descending the mountain we were welcomed by the sight of a power station perched at the edge of the beach spewing out black plumes of smoke in the salty coastal air. I had a strange flashback of Santiago for a second and instanttly decided it wasn't the place for us.

Having said that, Concon and Quintero have their unfair share of industry too.

The search continues...

Help me out a bit with terms.My spanish is good but it seems the meanings are different in Chile.
"In a condiminium" what does this mean?
Condominium here never refers to a lot, it refers to owning horizontal (stacked) property.
Does Urbanizada mean water and power at a lot?
Here in PR Urbanizacion, means it is an approved subdivision but we wouldn't describe a lot that way only a neighborhood.
Thanks