Tower blocks change face of Chile's 'Sanhattan'

SANTIAGO, Jan 22 (Reuters) Standing in the doorway of his two-story house, Manuel Morales gazes up at a massive apartment block that casts a shadow across his home.

For the first time in his life, he says, he has put up curtains, to stop his new neighbors from peering into his home.

Morales is one of many inhabitants of the Chilean capital who are dismayed and alarmed by the speed with which their city is being transformed by a building boom fueled by years of red-hot economic growth.

''You suddenly find you're living next to a concrete monstrosity,'' said Morales, 70. ''We're losing identity, intimacy.'' Dozens of glitzy residential tower blocks are being thrown up in what were once quiet, leafy suburbs of low-level houses in this city of 6 million people.

Santiago's business district has been dubbed 'Sanhattan' due to its supposed resemblance to Manhattan, the New York island of vertigo-inducing skyscrapers.

The plush area of Las Condes, where Augusto Pinochet lived during his dictatorship and where current President Michelle Bachelet resides, is dotted with gleaming towers.

As the housing market has become saturated in upmarket areas like Las Condes, developers have moved into middle-class areas like Morales' Nunoa.

''We used to have lovely houses before, with tiled roofs, gardens and fruit trees,'' Morales recalled. ''Now, they're pulling them down to build apartment blocks, and you wouldn't believe how quickly they build them.'' According to the Chilean Chamber of Construction, the number of permits granted for the building of houses and apartments in the Santiago area rose 12.6 per cent in the first nine months of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005.

The chamber expects the construction sector to grow 8.9 per cent this year with investment of 433 million dollars.

Each of the city's 32 districts has the right to set its own rules on building heights, sizes and styles, meaning there is little consistency. A new 15-story block of flats wedged up against an elegant 100-year-old house is a common sight.

CHANGING SOCIETY To an extent, the new buildings reflect changes in society resulting from Chile's development. More people are living on their own and the birth rate is declining, leading to smaller families.

A poll conducted by private research group Collect last year showed that nearly three-quarters of all new residential buildings were apartments rather than houses.

''The majority of Chileans, who at one time lived in houses of around 140 square meters -- the model in the 1960s and 1970s -- are adjusting to live with 80 or 90 square meters these days,'' said Juan Sabbagh, president of the Chilean College of Architects.

In richer areas of the city, giant advertising banners for studio flats and one-bedroom apartments adorn the sides of newly-built buildings.

The construction boom is helping regenerate the center of Santiago, which has witnessed a drastic drop in population over the past half century as families left for the suburbs.

According to the last census, conducted in 2002, the population of central Santiago was just 202,000, compared to 439,000 in 1952.

But now, people are starting to move back in to the center, as old buildings are restored and new ones are built.

''We had to get people back,'' said Miguel Saavedra, director of public works for the Santiago Central district.

''Because if traditional city centers become places where people work by day but are abandoned by night, it creates serious social problems.'' While some welcome the changes that have transformed Santiago in recent years, others warn that the wealth from the building boom is being channeled into areas that need it least -- the richer parts of town.

''Santiago is not just Las Condes, Providencia and Nunoa,'' said Marta Lagos, a sociologist and director of the Chilean office of polling group MORI.

''It's also La Granja, La Pintana and Cerrillos, where you're not seeing the economic benefits,'' she said, referring to poorer suburbs in the south of the city.

Back in Nunoa, just a short walk from Morales' house, Angel Mella has no complaints about the monumental new buildings that are sprouting up around his little grocery store.

''Keep them coming,'' the 55-year-old said with a big smile.

''They're good for business.'' Reuters BDP DB1024