AllCHILE.NET FORUM:


All Chile
Forum and Wiki


Chile Expat Forum

Chile Real Estate, Land, and Property
Parcelas in Chile
User Rating: / 11
PoorBest 
Chile Real Estate and Property
Article Index
Parcelas in Chile
infrastructure
Price of Parcelas
All Pages

In most cases a "parcela" in Chile is about 5,000 square meters (about 1.235 acres) or the smallest legal subdivision of property zoned “rural agricultural” property in Chile. Rarely is the term "parcela" applied to properties over one hectare in size. Pacelas in Chile larger than about one hectare are hard to find, and are typically just referred to as "campos" or "terrenos". For a property listing to refer to a property of say 6,000 square meters as a "campo" or "terreno" for sale, typically means it is not part of a formal community and it has no sort of infrastructure associated with it or the property has its own independent infrastructure.

In regards to what infrastructure is included when buying a parcela in Chile, it could be as simple as alot in a field with no water, electricity, or even road next to many other lots; however, more common is that "parcelas" ( good ones anyway ) include a full blown community with some sort of formally incorporated home owners association, roads, electric, water, and so on.  A parcela is essentially a planned community. You might in some situations even call it a "gated community", although not all have security or gates.

You will often find in real estate listings in Chile parcelas explicitly described as “urbanizada”. You should be careful with this term also. It is not the same as “urban” as zoned inside the city limits. Sometimes parcelas are both "urbanizada" and inside the city limits (e.g. the city does not provide all the utilities). Urban parcelas are typically far more expensive, and often include full connections to the city utilities (again, not always). Urban zoned parcels also may be smaller than 5,000 square meters. Parcelas “urbanizadas” are parcelas that have community infrastructure such as electric, water, and roads, as if they were in the urban zone ( subject to interpretation). How much infrastructure depends on the subdivision.  

A parcela in general implies a community and infrastructure. It also often has restrictions attached to the title in the form of prohibitions regarding what you can and can not do. For instance, a very common restriction is no metal or zinc roofs. This is to stop people from building shacks. In a similar manner, a parcela in Chile might require houses to be of a certain size or prohibit certain roof styles, height of trees, use of the common areas, and so on.