Massive housing in central neighborhoods: Who is responsible for the excessive densification?

Abstract

Although the phenomenon was evident at least several years ago in various communes of Santiago, it was not until 2017 that housing hyper-densification by real estate companies exploded: a tweet by Claudio Orrego, then the mayor of the Metropolitan Santiago, put this topic on the agenda when showing the image of a real estate building of an impressive density for the local reality. After that, the controversy regarding responsibility was immediate: the State criticized the greed of the private and the permissiveness of the local government, while real estate companies defended themselves by blaming the rules. Now that the polemic has settled down, and considering that while the controversy is over the buildings are still there, we think it is necessary to return to this discussion, apropos the subject of this issue of ARQ: how to make massive housing today when the State lacks the capabilities it had 50 years ago? Who is held responsible to lead in this issue? Can this problem be left only in the hands of private companies, as it has happened up to now?