MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Punta del Este square meter prices remain steady

The value of the square metre in Uruguay’s most fashionable resort Punta del Este remains steady and experienced a slight increase in the last year according to an April report from ReporteInmobiliario.com, one of Buenos Aires leading real estate analysts.

The Punta del Este fourth annual survey focused on buildings under construction, or for sale, located in the Punta Ballena – La Barra corridor, which extends for approximately thirty kilometres along the Atlantic coast and, according to the report, the average square meter value for apartment units looking out to the ocean exceed the 3.000 US dollars. This represents a modest rise over the previous reports, when the rates of increase were far more intense.

Currently there are in Punta del Este 53 buildings under construction or for sale, 3 buildings less than last year; however, the area under construction is similar, almost equal to that of February 2008 (679,010 square meters).

The investment estimate for the 53 residential blocks of flats is almost one billion US dollars.

Most projects (38%) are still found in the hub area of the resort identified as “La Punta”, followed by those under construction in “la Mansa” and “la Brava” corridors, to the west and east of the peninsula. In the last 12 months, 15 new projects were added to the area and 18 were removed by developers, having been sold out.

Over the last twelve months the average square meter value has increased by 8.01%, lower to previous years but has reached an average of USD 2.694. The most highly valued flats are those looking out to the ocean and average, 3.043 US dollars. However for this category it was the slowest value increase, 2.08%, compared to the same period a year ago when the advance was 17.13%.

“La Punta” is the area with the lowest increase in value due to an excess of supply. This area relates to the Roosevelt Avenue, which virtually splits the peninsula resort in two and the hub surrounding the Conrad Hotel and Casino.

However those projects on “La Mansa” and “La Brava”, west and east of the peninsula, experienced the highest increase, reaching, in both cases, 11% in the last 12 months.

The residential blocks with the highest values per square meter are “Acqua”, 5.583 US dollars in La Brava; Quay 4.219 USD per in the harbour area, and “Imperiale Luxury Condominiums” selling at 4.073 USD.

ReporterInmobiliario.com also points out that some of the projects announced last year were not carried out and the plots of land are still on sale with the approved plans (such as “Torre Presidencial” or “Solar del Agua”).

Finally the consultants point out that even with the global slowdown, construction activity in Punta del Este can be expected to continue for another 18 months since 2008 was possibly one of the periods when more construction permits were authorized totalling over 400.000 square meters.