Abstract

We analyze the adaptative residential strategies of young, middle-class couples for buying or renting apartments in the center and pericenter of Santiago de Chile. As a result of qualitative research, we describe a complex unfolding of social and economic capital. Faced with different legal and economic barriers of a growingly financiallydriven market, we observe households drawing on third economic agents, the extension of rent, the postponement of residential emancipation and of the life cycle, and the institutionalization of affective ties.