To rent in Chile you have to consider some variables, misunderstandings, and considerations that you´ll have to face before negotiating and contracting your new home.
- Rentals are for anual contracts, less months have to be negotiate with the owner rising the offering price.
- Proprerty prices in Chile are net values, meaning that publish prices only consider the value of the Property. Utilities of the building, internet, cable tv, electricity and others must be payed by the tenant. (if you want all expenses included please inform).
- Rental prices adjust monthly due to inflation (please consider a montly rise of 0,25%), or each three months according to the agreement you sign.
- Rental prices can be in Chilean pesos or in UF (unidad fomento) an indexed estate currency that varies according the inflation. And therefore, all prices in UF to be readjust automatically.
- Traditional landlords, require Chilean collateral for lease. If you come to work in a company, ask your company for this collateral, if not owners and realtors will be reluctant to rent (mainly the reason of this problem is Chilean law contemplates a long procedure of for default leases, and owners exagerate their protection). Another way is pay in advance three, six or even the complete year.
- As a general rule, if you are alone, with out someone to guide you or any information of the market, do not offer less than 5% of the publish price. Offers depends on how old is the building or house, where it is located (preferred locations bids, many times are over the publish price, to reserve the property). If you want to go lower, ask the advice of your realtor. He must know how demanded is that building or property, and ask to verify the situation of your counterpart. A bad offer can make you take a wrong step, and Chilean owners can get offended, rejecting your bid, and qualifying you as a non serious person, for that they will not accept any other future proposition coming from you.
- Realtor commission is 50% + Tax (10%), from each part, from the final rental value. You will have to pay this commission if you want a guide for your house hunting.
- Do not accept a realtor that will show you only one or two properties. This means that he or she is to small, and will be desperate to close a deal at the maximum price. For that your access to negotiation variables will be to poor. A good realtor depending on the product that you want, must have a network with other realtors too, that can show you at least 5 to 6 properties with the standards, that you want.
- You have to consider that contracting process are from one to two weeks, depending if there are lawyers in the revision of contracts. For that if you are assigned in a hotel or apart hotel for one month, you have to be closing the deal during the first fifteen days.
- Prices in Chile for rental properties, have gone up last two years, because of copper and raw materials high prices, Chilean economic stability, and many new foreign investors have arrive to the market. Please check our Property Price Guides (under Description of expats Locations)
- Mobility assistants or secretaries in charge of expats do not have to know everything about this market. Indeed, because they are Chilean, many times their criteria to confront this task, is determined by local passed experiences they have lived or heard in television news stories. Even many times they are correct, but expats properties, is a special market, and must be dealt with various considerations.
- Demand from your realtor a translated contract, many time (almost 100% of the times) the Chilean company lawyer, will accept proper and lawful terms, or customs and practices of the country, that you will never know, but will affect you during your contracting period.
Before house hunting; inform your realtor:
A) Your nationality (If he really knows, he will immediately know what type of property you need because of your sociocultural average requirements)
B) If you have kids please inform ages and if you want to be near to which schools (there are three international school areas)
C) If you want to be near to the subway system (named Metro) other public transportation (we do not recommend because of punctuality).
D) Do you want to be nearby to big shopping malls and supermarket or your office (please mention location of your office)
E) When are you arriving to Santiago and when you want to be already located.
F) Do you bring a dog or cat. Many buildings are restricting new dogs in building, and sometimes owners don’t want them, nor cats. Tell your realtor before, so he can do a prior selection, if not I can assure you that at least in 70% of the apartments you’ll be rejected because of this reason. (and you have only fifteen days to do your property search)
G) From which company you come from. Important because if it is a new in the market and unknown, the realtor hast to investigate, so he can do a strategy to present in the offer your credentials.
WARNINGS
- Never send money to reserve an apartment, doesn’t matter if you don’t get it, it can be a scam.
- Don’t lease apartments more than 15 years old or houses over 20. Chilean construction are excellent for earthquake purposes, but because landlords do not maintain their rental properties (leaks are very common) and electrical systems are not adjusted to new electronics. It is to expensive to cable again, according to the new Chilean law dictated and certificated by the National Bureau of Electricity and Fuel ( blackouts, are very common) and finally heating systems have an old technology (when fuels where much cheaper), for that in winter you will suffer of cold and more important your pocket.
- Always ask Ownership Certificate (to prevent scams).
- Do not accept owners asking for unreasonable extra security-deposit, (Chilean Owner have a bad reputation to keep this warranty), and you’ll not be in Chile to claim it, when you leave.
- If you feel that the owner is very suspicious and mistrustful, do not do business with him. (that owner will not be helpful in future problems that you might have with your property and the most probable situation, is that he will not return the warranty, or claim exaggerated repairs to overcharge the final amount)
- We don not recommend at all to do your own property search in a foreign country, and also be careful with the realtor you choose. Chilean realtors will always tell you that they have a zillion years of experience (That they even search and found the property of our Chilean founding father Pedro de Valdivia – Check out his house in San Pedro de Atacama) Our company basis on systems, of finding, selecting secure building and properties, choosing honest owners and averaging sociocultural property taste, so our clients will never loose their time (for example Japanese & Korean citizen, prefer a good sight to the Andes Mountains).
WE RECOMMEND
- If you come as an expats assigned by a company and want to save money and time, and only need to search for a property, ask for our company realtor service. It has the knowledge, and know how of what an expat needs in Santiago Chile. It Is also a risk free service and paid after the job is done (50% + tax of the contracted amount).
If you want to know more of real estate market, basic relocation pointers and related topics, we recommend freely see all our web sites and get informed. - For a real estate tourism service, combing visits to markets, Shopping Malls, Country Clubs and a complete overview of Santiago Area with a professional real estate tourist guide, we recommend to contract our Real Estate Tourism Services Prices
- For other complete relocations paper work services (including, visa processing, driver license etc.)we can recomend some external services.