According to Diario Financiero, which obtained data from the Tesorería General de la República (Chile's national treasury), 39.3% of property tax charges were delinquent at the end of June this year. That is higher than the level recorded in 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to those figures, the Tesorería issued 8.5 million charges during the first half of the year, and 3.3 million of them remained unpaid. All arrears indicators rose compared with the same period a year earlier.
Contribuciones, Chile's real estate tax, are levied on the value of properties, and the revenue goes to municipalities. They are paid in four instalments, in April, June, September and November. In recent years they have sparked controversy because they rose much faster than wages.
The arrears are also visible when counting properties. As of June, 1.9 million properties, 50.5% of the total, had outstanding payments. In other words, one in every two properties was behind, a figure also higher than during the health emergency.
In monetary terms, owners owed about US$ 480 million, 28.7% of the amount billed. According to the newspaper, that proportion had not been seen in the last six years.
Revenue still grew. In the first half, US$ 1,156 million came in from property tax, 6.5% more than a year earlier. Las Condes topped the list with US$ 118.4 million, followed by Vitacura, Lo Barnechea, Providencia and Santiago.
Ignacio Aravena, a researcher at Fundación P!ensa, points first to households' ability to pay. He explains that the tax is calculated on the official assessed value of the property, not on the owner's income. He adds that, with high unemployment, "it is not far-fetched to think there are greater difficulties" in paying it.
Aravena also mentions the exemption for older adults' primary residence included in the Ley de Reconstrucción (Reconstruction Law). He believes it may have led some to postpone payment, but warns that delinquency has been rising for years. In addition, the benefit starts in 2027, is not retroactive and requires 2026 property taxes to be paid up to date.
Juan Alberto Pizarro, chair of the Tax Committee of the Colegio de Contadores (Chile's accountants' association), agrees that "there are taxpayers who chose to wait". He clarifies that the settlement allowed by the law covers past debts, not this year's instalments.
Fernanda Heusser, senior associate at the law firm Lathrop Mujica Herrera y Diez Abogados, attributes the rise to the 2022 reappraisal and inflation adjustments. Many homes that were previously exempt began to pay. According to Heusser, this tax is often among the first payments to be postponed because, unlike electricity or water, not paying it does not lead to an immediate cutoff.
Sebastián Hudson, general manager of Póliza Gestión, cited data from the Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII, Chile's tax authority). Between 2021 and 2025, the annual amount of property taxes grew 26% in real terms, from US$ 2,300 million to US$ 2,900 million. Over the same period, delinquent debt nearly doubled, from US$ 220 million to US$ 417 million, and as of June this year it had already reached US$ 480 million.
