families who, depending on the stage of their housing journey, move from a tent to a makeshift shack, and from there to a housing solution likely located on the outskirts. The Chilean Chamber of Construction estimates the regional housing deficit at 84,658 families, placing the Valparaíso Region in a state of emergency by 2026. Emergency as a Way of Life The vulnerability of Valparaíso’s hills and ravines to fire is neither new nor surprising: it is structural and inherent to the city’s geography. Valparaíso faces a multifactorial vulnerability resulting from a com- bination of its hilly and ravine-filled topography, strong summer winds, wooden construction in historic districts, and urban expansion into forested areas—all of which make Valparaíso one of the cities most at risk of fire in the world. This reality has shaped its history, its architecture, and even the creation of its institutions, such as the Fire Department. Between 1843 and 1906, the history of Valparaíso was marked by the use and uncontrolled spread of fire, to the point that researchers speak of a veritable “regime of fire” that defined the city’s identity and architecture. The great fire of Valparaíso in the La Pólvora neighborhood in April 2014, in the upper part of the city, is considered the largest urban fire in the country’s history. The flames spread down the hills and ravines in a fan-like pattern toward the northeast, affecting entire neighborhoods between the Mariposas, Monjas, La Cruz, El Litre, Las Cañas, Merced, Ramaditas, and Rocuant hills. The disaster left more than 2,900 homes destroyed, 12,500 people displaced, 15 fatalities, and more than 500 injured. The entire city was declared a disaster area. What happened after that fire is a lesson that has only been partial- ly learned. The government designed a $509 million reconstruction plan based on three pillars: rebuilding the burned homes, improving connectivity in the hills, and rehabilitating the ravines. Research by Bernardo O’Higgins University found that by 2019, 80% of the burned- down buildings had been rebuilt, but in the same high-risk locations where they originally stood. The Valparaíso Observatory was blunt in its assessment: “It has been a reconstruction marked by informality and the repetition of the same mistakes.” In addition, 263 affected families were relocated to Villa El Aromo in Villa Alemana, in what scholars from the University of Chile described as a process of “social and urban relegation”: a subsidized displacement far from their networks, their neighborhood, and their history. Two years after the massive wildfire of 2024—which NASA ranks as the fifth deadliest wildfire worldwide since 1900— the government reports
45% progress on reconstruction efforts, although the Housing Institute of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at Universidad de Chile, as well as representatives from the private sector, warn that the number of homes actually delivered is substantially lower. According to MINVU data as of August 2025, only 114 homes had been completed, 876 were under construction, and more than 2,600 remained behind schedule. The Transitional Emergency Fund (Law No. 21,681), which allocated up to $800 million for reconstruction, had executed only 14.6% of its annual budget as of that date. A particularly serious gap lies in subsidies: nearly 1,700 affected families remain outside the benefits system or are classified as “un- inhabitable,” an administrative barrier that hinders the full recovery of devastated neighborhoods. For the 765 families who lived in camps, reconstruction does not begin with a subsidy but with the prior decision to settle or relocate—the same unresolved dilemma left by the 2014 fire. Two years after the 2024 mega-fire, President Boric’s administration had delivered only 452 homes out of the 3,623 planned, representing 13% progress. Furthermore, only 75% of those affected had received a subsidy. The Deficit: The Region with the Most Camps in Chile The Valparaíso Region is home to more than 355 shantytowns, account- ing for 25.3% of the national total, making it the “nation´s capital” of precarious housing. According to TECHO-Chile, the trend has solidified: informal settlements are shifting toward higher-elevation and outlying areas, driven by high rental costs in the city center and established hillside neighborhoods. Two out of every three families in shantytowns live below the poverty line, on land that experts classify as “highly cli- mate-vulnerable,” prone to new fires and mass evictions. The main bottleneck in regularizing these settlements is not only legal but also related to basic infrastructure: the lack of water and sew- er systems in high-altitude areas prevents thousands of families from settling there. The Emergency Housing Plan has progressed to nearly 73% of its regional target, equivalent to approximately 23,400 homes. However, for families in camps, the situation is more precarious: only 61.6% of the homes committed for this segment are under construction as of Feb- ruary 2026. In land management, the government has consolidated a bank of 110 hectares of regional public land, planning solutions for more than 6,700 families, and breaking the logic of forcing people out to the peripheries without services. The Displacing Market: Touristification, Gentrification, and Adjustment While the outlying hills are becoming home to shantytowns and informal settlements, the historic hills are undergoing the opposite process: a surge in tourism and real estate development that is gentrifying the long- time residents. Following Valparaíso’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, the hills of Alegre and Concepción underwent a profound transformation: large homes that had served as residences were converted into boutique hotels, cafés, craft shops, and tourist facilities. The 2024 Census confirms the result: the city of Valparaíso has lost more than 11,000 residents, while municipalities such as Villa Alemana, Concón, and Quilpué are growing steadily. According to the CChC, the housing stock has dropped from 32 to 18 months of absorption, a sign of recovery. Demand is concentrated on 1- and 2-bedroom apartments priced under 4,000 UF, driven by remote work and the growth of single-person households. The high-end market, on the other hand, shows a slow turnover of up to 38 months, which is geographically shifting private investment toward Playa Ancha and areas bordering Viña del Mar, in search of views and better connectivity.
The State Between Urgency and Planning The housing regulatory framework was designed for normal times. In the
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