Maldonado, Uruguay Construction Reaches New Heights

Local officials anticipate another record year of residential construction in Maldonado, Uruguay

The Uruguayan coastal state of Maldonado, home to popular beach side destinations like Punta del Este and Jose Ignacio, is poised for another record year of new residential development, according to state development and tourism officials.

In an interview with El Pais, the Director of City Tourism for Maldonado Horacio Di­az says in January and February, developers submitted approval requests for 170,000 m² of new residential construction. At the current rate, Maldonado forecasts 400,000 m² of new projects will be submitted for approval by year-end 2010. If that forecast is valid, the increase in new construction requests would exceed 2009 by 14.2%.

In 2009, developers submitted approval request for 350,000 m² of new construction, of which Maldonado approved 290,000 m² or 83%. Contrary to popular belief, most of the new construction requests in 2009 were for single-family homes (63%) vs. multi-unit dwellings (37%), of which only 10-12% were high-rise condominiums.

In the same article, El Pai­s points to the report we shared last month regarding the dynamic nature of the Maldonado real estate market vis-a-vis Buenos Aires. Over a recent 12-month period, the ratio of total area: sales was almost identical for both Buenos Aires (200,000 km² : US$4.26MM ) and Punta del Este (20,000 km² : US$437MM).

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