A recent study found that Santiago is the second most expensive city in Latin America in terms of price per square meter for apartments. The study was carried out by an Argentinian university. Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, took first place.
A periodic investigation by Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires reported that Santiago’s price per square meter was $2.92 (here and after, all prices are in U.S. dollars). Montevideo took first place at $3.15, and Mexico City came in third with $2.53.
The Financial Investigative Center at the university has been tracking prices per square meter for apartments in the main cities of Latin America Since March 2017.
“The idea is to capture the type of buildings normally inhabited by young professionals in each city,” the study stated. “The report is published twice a year and fieldwork captures the universe of data available during the last week of March and September each year.”
Cities with the least expensive prices per square meter in South America are: Córdoba (Argentina), $1.31; Quito (Ecuador), $1.20; and Bogotá (Colombia), $1.05.
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Initially, the investigation covered 15 cities in 10 countries, but it discontinued research on Caracas (Venezuela) due to insufficient data. In the end, the study included 14 cities from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Uruguay and Chile. Santiago was the only city that represented Chile.
“The results provide valuable information for monitoring the real estate market, which is useful for families, for the financial system, and for analyzing the regional economies,” according to the study. “This investigation uses prices ordered by sellers taken from the most used websites” in the 14 select cities. “The data comes from the company Navent sites and other public sources.”
Check out the complete ranking here
Chongyang Zhang is pursuing an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s program in journalism, media and globalisation. His interest lies in the relations among the United States, Latin America and China. He is currently doing an exchange semester at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.