New quarantines will force construction companies to stop almost 800 projects, which employ over 300,000 people throughout Chile

The confinement measures announced by the government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and which will take effect from this Friday until at least May 22, will imply that in this period there will be 778 paralyzed housing projects nationwide.

Of this total, 747 works are in the Metropolitan Region and 31 in regions, according to a cadastre prepared by the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC).

The projects stopped total 103,145 homes and according to calculations by the union, they are a source of direct work for just over 338 thousand people. Furthermore, the halting of these projects implies a total cost of US $ 47.6 million per week, considering both Santiago and regions.

In the Metropolitan Region, Ñuñoa is the commune that concentrates the largest number of projects, 110 in total and around 16,277 units. Santiago follows, with 90 initiatives totaling 14,781 units. Meanwhile, Providencia and Las Condes report 71 and 67 tasks, respectively.

As for the affected jobs, the paralyzed works in Santiago and Central Station are those that concentrate the greatest number: 48,126 and 42,312 jobs, respectively.

Patricio Donoso, president of the CChC, maintained that “with the new quarantines in the Metropolitan Region the situation of the industry will become even more complicated, but it is evident that the increase in infections requires severe measures.”

According to iConstruye calculations, the projects that will paralyze represent 98% of the works under construction in the Metropolitan Region. At the national level, this corresponds to 65% of the initiatives under construction. Nicolás Errázuriz, iConstruye corporate general manager points out that “if for the rest of this month the Metropolitan Region remains in total quarantine, we estimate a consolidated drop of the order of 50% – 60% of the activity nationwide.”

José Ignacio Vicente, general manager Toctoc.com, comments that, in addition, “the total quarantine and the difficulties of movement will affect the performance of real estate sales in the coming weeks”, understanding the difficulties and the impossibility of visiting the sales rooms, Know the pilots or sign documents that are required in a purchase and sale.

The stoppage will also mean further delays in the progress of the works. From Paz Corp they indicated that this Friday 2 additional works in Lo Barnechea will paralyze, completing a total of 13 paralyzed works. “We have all of our teams ready to resume work as soon as the quarantines are lifted, so the delays we will have will be practically equal to the length of the quarantines,” they indicated.

Based on information from the Capital Goods Corporation as of May 4, the CChC estimated at the national level 158 private infrastructure projects (US $ 46,208 million) affected – not necessarily paralyzed – by the pandemic and control measures. In relation to public infrastructure projects executed by mandate of the MOP, he estimated that at that time there were 127 projects (US $ 776 million) underway with problems in their execution and 11 concessioned projects (US $ 2,566 million) affected.