Minister of Housing and Urban Development Iván Poduje handed over six homes this Friday to families from Concepción, Tomé and Penco, in the Biobío Region. All had lost their homes in the January wildfires. There, he announced that reconstruction would reach a thousand housing starts this year, counting both completed homes and those under construction.
La Tercera reported this. According to the outlet, the process is close to reaching that target. The three municipalities are in Greater Concepción: Tomé lies about 30 kilometers north of the regional capital, and Penco is between the two, beside Concepción Bay.
The visit began in the El Pino area of Concepción. There, the minister reviewed an industrialized construction pilot that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (Minvu) implemented to speed up the delivery of homes to those affected. According to regional outlet G5 Noticias, homes were also handed over in Punta de Parra, in Tomé.
The homes are financed through the Solidarity Housing Choice Fund Program (DS49), under its Construction on Own Land option, which allows a new home to be built on the family's existing plot. There are two models: a single-story home measuring 64 square meters, and a two-story home measuring 52.57 square meters.
According to G5 Noticias, the homes have two or three bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a combined living and dining room. They are built with structural insulated panels (prefabricated insulating panels) and double-glazed windows to improve thermal insulation against Biobío's climate.
Concepción Mayor Héctor Muñoz highlighted coordination among institutions during the emergency, debris removal and the use of Form 2, the damage assessment record completed by Minvu officials. "There is coordinated work by all the entities here," he said.
Poduje also highlighted the work of technical teams, municipalities and communities. The sources do not report how many families are still waiting for permanent housing or the total amount invested in the region.
The minister set the next deadline: completing much of the reconstruction during 2027. He excluded larger projects, which he said need more time. He did not specify which projects those were.
