Home sales in the Metropolitan Region resumed growth in the third quarter: prices of houses and apartments continue to rise

Home sales are beginning to recover from the heavy crashes. That at least was observed in the third quarter, although still far from those of 2019, they were substantially better than in the first months of the pandemic.

According to the latest GfK Adimark report, 5,021 new units were sold in the Metropolitan Region in the third quarter (4,114 apartments and 907 houses), which represents an increase of 90.6% compared to the previous quarter, but a drop of 42.3 % if compared to the same period of 2019. However, it is considerably less than the annual drop of 71.9% that it recorded in the second quarter. 41% of the units sold are below 3,000 UF.

“Last year sales were quite good, we had less restriction from banks, rates were very low, which helped the sale to reach 8,000 or 8,500 units. Today that number is much lower, but the interesting thing is that we are seeing an improvement in terms of sales. For a period, people could not leave their homes, they only traded via the web, and we begin to see an accumulated demand that helps the minute that the communes begin to come out of quarantine, people begin to mobilize and go to the rooms selling. But the withdrawal of 10% of the AFPs also helped ”, says Javier Varleta, manager of Territorial Studies at GfK Adimark.

Prices, meanwhile, continue to rise slightly. In the case of apartments, the square meter rose from 77.5 UF in June to 77.9 in September. In houses, the square meter went from 64.8 in June to 65.2 in September.

“On the one hand, one sees that the price of the apartments is quite stable, but also the prices at which new projects are entering are much higher than the average of the commune, and at higher prices if one wants to compare it with the previous measurements. The shortage of land keeps prices rising. In houses, prices rise 0.6%, much less than what we have been observing in other measurements, ”explains Varleta.

In the third quarter 65 new real estate projects that started sales, one more than the previous period. The level is slightly lower than the average of 73 projects a month prior to the pandemic. Santiago and Ñuñoa led with 13 and 12 projects launched, respectively.

GfK Adimark data also shows that with this number of projects, the supply available today reaches 51,187 units, 9.3% more than in the previous quarter and 32.5%, if we compare with the same period of 2019.