Chile Forum

The program "Informe Especial" just ran a segment on bad construction and other problems of recently built houses and apartments in Chile. Chilenos are becoming more vocal and aware of what we on this board have been pointing out from Day 1.

yea, we are going to try and get the tape and rights to translate and republish it. It is somewhere on their website.
I think it is on this page, but I can not see it because of plugin problems with their site.
http://noticias.tvn.cl/detalle.aspx?p=o ... 543&ids=2#

It was one of the best pieces of investigative reporting we have seen in Chile.

The bottom line is: DO NOT EVER SIGN A CONTRACT ON ANY APARTMENT OR HOUSING DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN CHILE FROM ANY COMPANY BEFORE IT IS BUILT!!!

Either build your own house, or wait until the building is done.

It is what they call "verde", where you sign a contract and then you wait for them to build. Typically they offer you a super good price for buying early. Among the biggest offenders where Paz. They have buildings that are three years behind schedule, much smaller than their show apartments, and with all kinds of problems.

They also pulled samples from the concrete in the buildings, and had a group of engineers from the University of Chile stress test them. They failed.

They also looked at things like how there was like 5 guest parking spots for two buildings with over 600 apartments.

The list went on and on. Most of the problems did not meet Chilean building standards. They also looked at some of the lower end track homes that are just disintegrating. The municipalities do not seem interested in stopping the big companies by pulling their permits. There is too much money and political influence behind the big boys for that.

The one company though they interviewed that we where impressed with their answer was Socovesa. The general manager just simply said, "if there are problems, I will pay to fix them". So far, at least the houses I have seen, have been well done and the Socovesa people to seem to keep up with their warranty after construction. I have not payed too much attention to their high rise buildings, but all their higher end houses I have seen have been done right.

A while back I was talking to our engineer about those apartment buildings. We did some back of the napkin calculations that one of those apartments that sells for anywhere from 50 million to 150 million pesos could cost those companies as little as 15 million pesos each in materials and labor to build. They are really making a killing.

es possible de verlo de nuevo a http://noticias.tvn.cl/informe_especial ... x?IdC=3065
it's possible to watch again this video to http://noticias.tvn.cl/informe_especial ... x?IdC=3065
il est possible de revoir la video sur le site http://noticias.tvn.cl/informe_especial ... x?IdC=3065


there is so much to say on the poor quality of buildings on Santiago. between noise, humidity, pollution, agau caliente muy expensive ...

These links no longer work but here's one that does (a follow-up from 2009):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM_tPBqCVTQ

We really as yet to see a client buy a "green" (not built) apartment and really be happy with what they get in the end. In spite of our best efforts to convince them not to buy them, still occasionally we get a client that goes for it anyway.

When you buy green, you are not buying real estate. You are buying the promise to someday build something that will be real estate. There is very little room for contract terms negotiation. They are take or leave it sorts of contracts, that are slanted hard in the favor of the builder.