Taken from Diario Libre
SANTO DOMINGO.- The construction of apartment buildings is increasingly relegating traditional single-family homes, mainly in Santo Domingo, the National District and Santiago, with 75.3% of licensed private investment in the sector going to the former properties last year alone.
The Dominican Association of Housing Builders and Promoters (Acoprovi ) and of Real Estate Agents and Companies (AEI) attribute this growing trend to the high cost of land for construction in urban centers, which leads to the construction of vertical projects that are cheaper to sell.
By 2021, there was an investment of 75,648.1 million pesos for the construction of apartment buildings erected by the private sector, while 1,612.2 million pesos were allocated to housing, according to the National Statistics Office (ONE) in its 2021 Yearbook of Economic Statistics, published last week.
When there were 3,517 licensed apartment buildings under construction in 2021, only 493 homes were reported.
In that year alone, 1,256 licenses were granted for private construction. 62.26% of these were for apartment buildings and 14.97% for single-family homes, according to the National Statistics Office (ONE), which compiled figures from the administrative records of the Plan Processing Department of the Ministry of Public Works and Communications.
Scarce and more expensive houses
“The global trend is toward increasingly compact cities, so the way to achieve compact cities is through vertical densification,” emphasizes Jorge Montalvo, president of Acoprovi. “Single-family housing projects require more land and space to be developed.”.
Furthermore, he mentions that developing single-family housing projects on the city's outskirts also involves bringing services to the area, which means higher costs. Alberto Bogaert, president of the AEI, also points out that maintenance and security costs for a house can be higher than for an apartment.
In the National District, there is a shortage of large plots of land for single-family homes, so this type of property is scarce; when it does come on the market, it is more expensive. Furthermore, areas that were originally designated for single-family homes have been transformed into high-rise apartment buildings.
Bogaert cites as an example that an apartment in the Los Cacicazgos sector can cost between $250,000 or $300,000 and a house $600,000.
They monopolize construction areas
Of the total construction area last year, 71.9% was allocated to apartment buildings, totaling 4,458,155.9 square meters. Overall, the number of private sector construction projects with permits was 5,496 for 2021. These were concentrated primarily in Santo Domingo (49.9%), Santiago (9.4%), the National District (8.4%), and Peravia (5.5%).
Regarding the type of construction, the report details that 64% were apartment buildings, 10% were a combination of commercial premises and offices, and 9% were housing.
