RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The commune of Macul registered the highest increase in house rental prices during the past year. If at the end of 2020, the rent of three-bedroom and two-bathroom properties reached CLP 517,519 (US$646), in the fourth quarter of last year, the value jumped to CLP 911,694, an increase of no less than 76.2%, according to data from Portal Inmobiliario.
In the case of apartments, the commune that registered the highest increase in rent prices was Vitacura, with an increase of 35% in the typology of three bedrooms and the same number of bathrooms, going from CLP 1,030,997 to CLP 1,392,029 in twelve months.
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The rent increase is attributed to the higher demand for this type of property because of the more restrictive financing conditions to buy a property.
The trend is expected to deepen this year, as the high-interest rates on mortgage loans, coupled with the scarcity of land suitable for housing developments (which means that housing prices will continue to rise), will make it increasingly difficult for people to buy their own homes.
It has led to a boom in the so-called multifamily buildings, which are properties owned by a single owner or investor-oriented, to leasing the multiple housing units that comprise them.
By 2022, around 7,000 apartment units in 24 projects are expected to enter the market, reaching approximately 107 buildings in operation by December 2022. These new buildings are concentrated in the Santiago, Ñuñoa, La Florida Estación Central, and La Cisterna districts.
“It is difficult to be able to project higher increases than we have already identified with our Quarterly Housing Report to the fourth quarter of 2021 for the Metropolitan Region. In it, we were able to see that, for the housing market, rental values had an annual increase of 15.3%, the largest increase in the last 15 years, and for the apartment market, a considerable increase of 6.7% per year, the largest on record since 2014,” explains Nicolás Izquierdo, Planning and Operations Manager of Portal Inmobiliario.
The expert adds: “Houses will probably continue to concentrate more demand and, therefore, register the highest price increases. It is a product of the various changes brought about by the pandemic, which caused users to prioritize the search for larger spaces far from urban areas”.
In Izquierdo’s opinion, the districts that could continue to show the highest increases in rents due to a more residential profile are those farther away from the city center, which offer relatively more competitive values per square meter than more consolidated areas.
THE LARGEST INCREASES
After Macul, the districts with the highest increases in rents for houses with three bedrooms and two bathrooms are Colina (with a 40% increase to CLP 1,368,901 at the end of 2021), Puente Alto (with a 25.5% increase to CLP 583,764), and La Florida (with a 15% increase to CLP 689,018).
Lo Barnechea is the commune with the highest rental values, with CLP 3,037,459 for properties with four bedrooms and the same number of bathrooms at the end of 2021, an increase of 12.6% compared to the same period of 2020.
Further behind is Vitacura, with a rental value of CLP 2,255,051 for houses with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, an increase of 6% compared to 2020.
In apartments, the highest rental prices are located in the commune of Lo Barnechea, with rents of CLP 1,658,814 for properties with three bedrooms and the same number of bathrooms at the end of 2021, an increase of 31.5% compared to the previous year.
Next is Vitacura, with a rent of CLP 1,392,029 for three-bedroom apartments with the same number of bathrooms, an increase of 35% in twelve months.