Although the central neighborhoods of Montevideo where the country’s main services and job opportunities are concentrated, this area of the Uruguayan capital has begun to become depopulated in recent years. In at least two decades, The city lost 6% of its population while other nearby areas doubled their inhabitants. The question that arises for experts is whether it is not time to encourage the repopulation of the center of Montevideo.
According to an article by The Observerthe urban center of the capital deteriorated while other neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city and other nearby departments – such as Canelones and San José – gained inhabitants. But many of them have to continue going downtown to work. And this results in a increase in the use of private transportation, in the growth of pollution, in time, in costs and in the efficiencies of services.
In 20 years, the population of Ciudad de la Costa grew by 118%. And in other neighborhoods on the outskirts the growth was even greater: Barrios Blancos did it 153% and Toledo 514%.
Montevideo “has an important margin to increase the population in its central areas,” analyzed Martín Alesina, a public policy expert who studied the electricity supply in the metropolitan area of Montevideo.
This academic is one of those who wonders if it is necessary to encourage the repopulation of the areas of the capital that are emptying. Based on international literature, he explained that compact and well-connected cities usually generate benefits in innovation, equity and quality of life. But when they expand to the peripheries, transportation and pollution problems increase.
This depopulation of the central areas generates another problem in terms of public policy: Thousands of homes are wasted and left unused.
In particular, Alesina maintained that it would be necessary to work so that the Old City, the Center, Cordón and Tres Cruces are a priority to densify them in population. The drop in population in this area is greater than 8%, but these are places where there are services and where there is a good part of the stock of empty homes, the note states. The Observer.
In these neighborhoods there are 18,291 empty homes which are not even intended for temporary use.
While Montevideo’s population falls, the number of homes built in the city grows. In less than 20 years this number increased by 28%, which is equivalent to 128,000 new homes. In addition, empty houses almost doubled.
On the outskirts of Montevideo, meanwhile, there are about 300 settlements.
Where could these public policies go? One option that Alesina suggested is that the Mortgage bank –the state financial entity specialized in loans for real estate purposes– concentrates financing of up to 95% of the value of homes in priority areas, with installment subsidies graduated according to an index.
Another of the suggested public policies is designed to stop the expansion of urban planning to areas far from the center. Specifically, the expert proposed: “Stop encouraging new construction in areas of low centrality. Social housing programs and exemptions should be located in areas with a high value of the centrality and density index. Construction permits and municipal taxation should reflect these criteria, making it more accessible to live in central areas.”
Data from the last census, carried out in 2023, show that Montevideo remains the most populated department in Uruguay: It concentrates 37% of the country’s population.
But The inhabitants of the capital have decreased by 5.3% since the last study (made in 2011). The Uruguayan capital is the most expelling department. From there, six out of every thousand inhabitants emigrate every year and many of them end up in nearby areas such as Canelones and Maldonado, areas where there is population growth.
