The need to live in areas close to workplaces and study centers, partly explains the upward trend that has reported in recent years’ vertical construction in the Guatemalan capital.
Data from the Municipality of Guatemala detail that between 2017 and 2018, the number of square meters authorized in vertical construction projects increased by 41%, going from 2.69 million to 3.8 million.
The Guatemalan government expects that in the first two months of 2019, all procedures related to the issuance of construction permits can be carried out online.
Representatives of the Ministry of Economy (Mineco), reported that the plan is that through the Ventanilla Única de la Construcción, construction companies can process licenses digitally.
Because licensing is proceeding faster, private projects are rebounding in Guatemala and the sector in general expects to close 2018 with a 3% increase.
Representatives of the Guatemalan Chamber of Construction (CGC), explained that the positive behavior of the sector this year is because of the liberalization of licenses for the construction of projects that were pending to be authorized and new investments made.
In Guatemala, the builders' union and the government signed an agreement to work on simplifying and reducing procedures required to obtain a construction license.
The Guatemalan Chamber of Construction (CGC) and the Ministry of Economy (Mineco), have signed an agreement for institutions working in the process of issuing licenses, to work together in order to reduce the existing bureaucracy.
A bureaucracy that keeps delaying delivery of construction licenses, is now joined by a possible cement tax proposed by the government.
Entrepreneurs in the sector anticipate a relatively poor performance for the sector in the remainder of the year, although no significant increases are expected in the prices of materials in general.The possibility that the proposal to levy $0.65 per sack of cement actually materializes comes on top of problems faced in obtaining building permits, which has forced some projects to grind to a halt.
Employers are demanding a one-stop shop service for issuing building permits, in order to avoid the ordeal of visiting 18 state institutions, and also the streamlining of tax collection.
Guatemala ranks 106 in the world in terms of ease of obtaining building permits, according to the World Bank.
One million square meters are awaiting construction permits in a country where 13 institutions have to be visited in order to collect a license.
For the Municipality of Guatemala to give out a building permit, the applicant must obtain approval from the Ministries of Environment, Culture and Sports, the General Property Registry, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the National Forestry Institute, the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction, the Office for Territorial Control and the district capital departments of Works, Historic Center, Environment and Land and from the Empagua.
The private sector claims that excessive paperwork and the lack of technical personnel in the Ministry of Environment is delaying the assessment of environmental impact studies and the granting of building permits.
According to the Guatemalan Chamber of Construction, the slowness with which the studies are evaluated and permits granted to construction companies is preventing projects being carried out in the medium-term and moving towards recovery of the sector.
The total number of square meters of construction sites authorized in the first nine months of the year in the municipalities of the metropolitan area increased by 8.9% compared to the same period in 2013.
From January to September of this year authorization was given for the construction of 1.6 million square meters of buildings, similar to that reported in 2013 which was for 1.8 million square meters, in other words, it is expected that by the end of 2014 an increase in the amount of construction will be reported.
The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in Guatemala is one of the institutions that is holding up construction projects by issuing licenses up to two years late.
At the moment the process of obtaining a license takes from 6 months to 2 years, depending on the size of the project.
During the first quarter of the year, there were 2,077 licenses approved for construction, 20% less than the 2,552 licenses that were approved during the same period in 2009.
There was a similar reduction in the amount of square meters approved for construction, which went from 330,851 square meters during the first quarter of 2008 to 264,164 during the first three months of 2009.
In the first quarter, the municipality of the capital city approved the construction of 243,010 square meters, 69.15% less than during the same period in 2008.
According to a report by the Congressional Committee on the Economy, there were 787,777 meters approved during the first four months of 2008.
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