Chilean Finance Minister Mario Marcel said the recovery of this sector has been hit by many factors since the pandemic, which has been "a perfect storm."

During his participation in the international construction fair Edifica, Chilean Finance Minister Mario Marcel indicated that the Government "has not only been concerned, but we have taken a significant number of initiatives to support the development and recovery of this sector that has been hit by many factors since the pandemic, pension fund withdrawals, increased costs of construction materials, credit restrictions, in short, it has been almost a perfect storm and yet, with difficulties, it has been moving forward, trying to move forward and at the same time we have worked to find ways to support it."

Along these lines, the Secretary of State listed the ten initiatives that have been implemented this year alone by the Government, among which the adjustments to the Fogaes construction and housing guarantee programs stand out, which extended their validity until the end of this year; the tender for mutual insurance companies to participate as credit granting entities with a guarantee to support housing within the framework of Fogaes housing; the exemption from taxes, stamps and stamps for the acquisition of homes with a mortgage guarantee; among others.

On the other hand, in April the Central Bank announced the decision to increase the investment limits in alternative assets for pension funds and a new limit on investment in alternative assets by the Individual Severance Fund; and it also issued a favorable opinion regarding the request to authorize pension and severance funds to invest in mortgage-backed securities in residential and non-residential endorsements.

Finally, Marcel recalled that a few days ago a series of regulatory changes in urban planning and construction were approved in the National Congress, seeking to simplify procedures. And on the Public Works side, since 2022, but especially since the beginning of this year, public investment regulations have been updated to reflect cost variations, which has resulted in a significant acceleration of public investment compared to the situation in previous years.

On the other hand, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Carlos Montes, indicated that the tremendous housing deficit does not only occur in Chile and referred to Mexico, a country that recently announced a housing plan because "they have an immense deficit" just like in Portugal and the United States.

“The entire world is facing housing shortages and many families are living in very poor conditions as a result of this, and the middle class has been increasingly excluded from alternatives to access housing, because prices have skyrocketed in relation to wages. So, this instance helps a lot to rethink things from a different perspective, even modifying some of the instruments necessary to do so,” he added.

The head of the Minvu also stated that a large part of the 2025 Budget for the portfolio will be focused on the construction of housing and addressed some critical issues, such as the delay in processing permits, with the indications presented by the Executive to reformulate the Council of Monuments, and the disparity in productivity of companies.

“In Maule, houses are being completed in 12 months, in the Metropolitan Region it is 24 months or more, in similar cases. So, the times have to do with productivity, with using or not using certain technologies that are appearing, or that existed before and are reappearing to increase the pace. We hope that in the future the production will be between 100,000 and 120,000 houses per year. That is what allows us to address the deficit at its source,” he said.

Meanwhile, the president of the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC), Alfredo Echavarría, said that “2024 has a promise that, I am sure, will be fulfilled: to be a lever that contributes to strongly boosting the reactivation of our sector. Edifica is above all the reflection of our conviction that a job, a construction, a country, is better when it is built with others, pursuing shared objectives.”