The concept of townhouses or terraced houses takes on more and more relevance in the luxury target of the local real estate market, according to agents of the sector in dialogue with Coffee & Business.
This style of construction maximize spaces and can become more economical than other properties, since townhouses They are “a group of two-story homes (usually), built next to each other that share at least one wall,” explained Pablo Cassi, head of sales for the real estate company Acsa.
This type of property was born in the United States and Europe to make the largest possible space habitable, and, in fact, it is not new in Uruguay, according to the president of the Chamber of Construction of Uruguay, Diego O’Neill. However, what is new is that, recently, these properties have been moving to premium projects in the world of Uruguayan real estate.
But cost optimization is not the only advantage of semi-detached houses. Along these lines, O’Neill explained that “this set of horizontal houses on expanded land has as its fundamental advantage the dividing wall shared by the two houses that are adjoining. Thanks to that, houses have better — and simpler — access to complex facilities wherever they are.”
The recreation spaces shared between the units that occupy the property, the regimes of security and tranquility —due to the distance they usually have from urban centers— are other points in favor of this style of housing in Uruguay.
In fact, the confinement brought about by the coronavirus pandemic was one of the fundamental reasons why people started looking for more green spaces and homes with more relaxed surroundings, stated the director of the Moebius real estate and consulting firm, Gonzalo Martínez. Consequently, this type of housing complexes were boosted and according to Martínez, its format also “favors the use of the land, which generates green areas of appropriate dimensions so that the residents can use it,” agreed Cassi.
Hillock
Townhouses captivated the premium target in recent years
Martínez further argued that the townhouses are becoming more and more attractive for investors and final buyers in the Uruguayan real estate sector. Currently, “there are developers who invest in this type of construction and sell the units through the Mortgage Bank,” he added.
Cassi, for his part, explained that semi-detached houses They have two potential clients.: on the one hand the final consumer and, on the other, the investor. In turn, the final consumer niche is subdivided into two classes. “We have the client who comes from an apartment and wants more space, especially green areas, and on the other, the one who comes from a large house and, on the contrary, wants to reduce space,” the executive explained.
The investor is also attracted to this type of property due to its cost effectiveness: “This is the typical case of someone who today buys for rent thinking about being able to live there in the future,” said Cassi.
“We have cases of properties that were bought andn around US$ 400 thousand and rented for US$ 2,500generating a gross return of 7.5%”, he added.
As they are buildings with a greater use of the land and whose dimensions require around 18 months of constructionthese homes became attractive to investors.
How much are these properties worth?
The units that make up the townhouses in Uruguay they have un price ranging from US$ 400 thousand to US$ 800 thousand. “The cost depends, above all, on the footage of the property, the point and the amenities,” said Cassi.
As for rentals, the amount goes from US$ 2 thousand to US$ 4 thousand per month.
These properties are growing in the style zones safe garden neighborhoods, such as Parques de Carrasco, San Nicolás or Los Olivos. Also in the gated communities from the East, at the height of Camino de Los Horneros. “These are areas where the properties tend to have an important value, with this typology as a cheaper option,” Cassi pointed out.
