Housing policies in Latin America: overview of the four largest economies

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the differences and similarities in housing policies in the four Latin American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. The paper uses the welfare regime approach, modified by a recognition of path dependence, to identify a number of phases that each country has passed through. However, attention is drawn to the substantial differences in the circumstances in each country and the extent and duration of the different phases. It is concluded that it can be beneficial to use the concept of a Latin American housing regime, but that this general picture has to be used with an understanding of the path dependence caused by the particular context in the individual countries.

Keywords:

• housing
• policy
• developing countries
• welfare regimes
• path dependence
• Latin America

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. There was a coup d’état in 1953 but democracy was restored in 1958 (Arismendi, 1983). For a review of authoritarian tendencies and their roots in Latin America, see Collier (1978).

2. The literature on housing policies for these countries is quite vast, the most relevant for this period are as follows: for Argentina, Zanetta, 2005; Barreto, 2012; Brazil see Valladares, 1978; Andrade and Azevedo, 1982; Melo, 1992; Bonduki, 2008; Chile see Arellano, 1982; Collins, 1995, Kusnetzoff, 1987, Rojas, 2000; Silva Lerda, 1997, and for Colombia see Ceballos Ramos & Saldariaga Roa, 2008b, Cuervo & Jaramillo, 2009.

3. Gobierno de Buenos Aires, Legislación, Decreto-Ley 8912/77. Available at http://www.gob.gba.gov.ar/legislacion/legislacion/d-8912.html see also Thuillier (2005).

4. This is still a current problem. The cases of Bogota and Buenos Aires are paradigmatic as they have a history of being ruled by the opposition party to the national government (see Rodriguez-Acosta, and Rosenbaum, 2005; de Duren, 2006; Thibert and Osorio, 2014).

5. Alcaldía de Bogota Ley 388, 1997 http://www.alcaldiabogota.gov.co/sisjur/normas/Norma1.jsp?i=339#0.

6. Gobierno de Colombia, Haciendo Casas Cambiamos Vidas. 100,000 Viviendas Gratis http://www.100milviviendasgratis.gov.co/publico/Default.aspx.

7. Regulatory framework of the programme can be found at the Ministry of Cities. http://www.cidades.gov.br/index.php/minha-casa-minha-vida.html

8. Decree 902/2012 Boletín Oficial. Available at http://procrear.anses.gob.ar/documentos/decreto-procrear.pdf.