Chile is home to over 17,000 American expats and many more English speaking expats from all over the world. But where do most of the expats live? What areas attract expats and why? In this article we will go over some of the most popular areas of Chile for expats.
The above photo is the Metropolitan Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas of Santiago.
The Ultimate Guide to Immigrating to Chile 3rd Ed.
There are many expats in the Santiago area primarily for jobs and schools. For young professionals Santiago Central is a popular place. Close to the jobs and metro it is a busy place with attractive bohemian style cafes, bookstores, and art shops. Providencia is close to the center of the city but has many quiet residential area and parks. Las Condes is a big area with many businesses, retail centers, and upscale residential neighborhoods. Vitacura and Lo Barnechea are more exclusive neighborhoods on the eastern border with the mountains. They do not have metro access to the downtown areas so are somewhat isolated from the rest of the city.
Pucon, in the Araucania region, is a very attractive place for expats and there are many as well as Santiaguinos with summer homes. The population is 25,000 though it seems to double in the summer with tourists. It is located on Lago Villarrica under the snow capped dome of Volcan Villarrica. The town is quaint and charming with attractive shops and restaurants catering to tourists.
The photo above is of the black sand beaches on Lago Villarrica in Pucon with Volcan Villarrica in the background. Photo courtesy of Anthem Sports Tours
https://anthemsportstours.com/
Puerto Varas, in the Los Lagos Region, is situated on Lago LLanquihue surrounded by snow capped volcanoes the largest of which is Volcan Osorno. It is a small city of 50,000 people that doubles in population every summer as well. A beautiful location with German style architecture, great shops, cafes, and restaurants Puerto Varas is an attractive place for foreigners. The photo below is the lakeside park in downtown Puerto Varas.
While there are expats hiding out all over Chile, these are the most popular spots. A few others of note, Arica in the very far north and Pichilemu in the central region of Maule are attractive for surfers.
As far as "communities" of expats, there were a few libertarian communities started in central Chile in the Santiago area. Freedom Orchard founded by John Cobin in Curacavi has gone bust. We went to look at it in 2013, but it looked like it was starting to teeter even then.
Galt’s Gulch Chile with Jeff Berwick had a financial crisis and went bust. There is lots of information out there on who stole from whom and so on. Do some research if you are interested.
Fundo El Sombrero is a private community in Panguipulli. We have visited that community and it is well established. There are still some lots available and occasionally a house goes on the market. Prices can range from $600k USD up to a million.
And near Valdivia is a libertarian community called Fort Galt. I’ve talked with one of the founding team, Gabriel Scheare, and it did seem to be proceeding well until the Pandemic and Gabriel closed up the place and moved back to Canada.