Shocks Regulatorios al Mercado Inmobiliario de Chile: ¿Cuánto del IVA a la Vivienda se Transfiere al Precio de Venta?

Abstract

This study shows that the 2014 tax reform in Chile (Law No. 20.780) caused a significant increase in housing sales prices. We exploit the way tax regulation was applied in Chile to generate an analysis framework based on a natural experiment. By applying difference-in-difference estimation technique, we found that the implementation of VAT on housing sales since 2016 caused an additional increase in prices between 9,6% and 12,6%. In addition, we detect heterogeneity in the transfer of VAT to prices, according to house values and location. Finally, we found two events that caused a rise in housing prices: the announcement of the tax reform in 2014 and the implementation of the Law in 2016.