Search Results for: chile

E-Commerce in Chile: Latin America’s Fastest Growing Market

Category : Chile
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Chile is an economic powerhouse at the tip of South America. Rapid technology infrastructure development paired with a business-friendly political climate and high levels of Internet penetration have helped Chile’s e-commerce market stand out among its larger counterparts.

With a population of ~18 million, Chile is a small market compared to behemoths like Brazil and Mexico. However, Chile’s e-commerce sector is stronger than its local counterparts; Chile has a disproportionate 9% share of Latin America’s e-commerce market, despite holding only 2% of the region’s population. The Chilean e-commerce market is already worth more than US$3.7B and targeted to grow at 35% in 2018, reaching US$5B by the end of the year.  

In part, this enormous growth comes as a result of international platforms, such as Amazon and AliExpress, which have drastically reduced delivery times and made e-commerce more accessible. Last year, national shipment company Correos de Chile partnered with AliExpress to reduce delivery times from a maximum of 60 days down to a window of 16 to 38 days. (more…)

New York Times: House Hunting in Chile with Andes Property

Category : Andes Property
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Lisa Prevost wrote an article breaking down the Chilean real estate market. My team and I have helped hundreds of foreigners buy and rent apartments in Chile since 2013 when we started Andes Property were quoted extensively in this report. Our attorney Jose Tomas Marambio, a Santiago real estate and business specialist is also quoted. Overall, Santiago and Chile in general are still interesting places to invest. You can still find properties that generate 8-10% cash on cash returns and as commodities prices return, there’s still room for the Chilean Peso to strengthen, further increasing gains as you diversify out of dollars. From the article:

Santiago saw an increase in housing prices between 2010 and 2015, but the pace has slowed since, said Nathan Lustig, an entrepreneur and a principal at Andes Property, a company that provides furnished rentals in Santiago, primarily to foreigners.

A value-added tax on the sale of new properties went into effect in 2016, and “prices for new construction went way up, as everybody tried to buy before the new tax came in,” Mr. Lustig said. “And they’ve kind of stayed that way.”

The value-added tax rate is 19 percent, but the final rate is usually lower, because it is applied to the sale price after the land value is deducted, said José Tomás Marambio Yaes, a real estate lawyer in Santiago.

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Start-Up Chile 101 and Chile The Expat’s Guide 2nd Editions

Category : Books, Latin America Startups and Investing
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In 2012, after living 2+ years in Chile, I wrote Start-Up Chile 101, the book I’d wished I’d had before joining the Start-Up Chile program. A year later, I wrote Chile: The Expat’s Guide for all of the foreigners who were thinking about moving to Chile.

Since then, these books have been bought by thousands of people thinking about living, working and doing business in Chile. Over the past four years, while working as Magma Partners’ managing partner, I learned even more about Chile and the rest of Latin America and decided to update both of these books.

The new books are reworked to include:

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Chile’s New Tech Visa is a Game Changer

Category : Chile, Latin America Startups and Investing
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Michele Bachelet, Chile’s President, announced the Chilean Tech Visa today which allows founders and tech workers an express lane to a visa in 15 days.

While countries like the US are making it harder for the best foreign entrepreneurs and tech workers to start their businesses or work for top companies, Chile has blazed a radically different path, making it easier and more attractive for foreigners to start a business or work for a high tech company in Chile. (more…)