Improvements to the Building Permit System

This research explores factors that have a negative impact on the procedures for obtaining construction permits in El Salvador, despite the efforts made in terms of regulatory improvements in the last 15 years and recent initiatives to redesign the corresponding institutional architecture, with the objective of streamlining these procedures, based on the approval of the Special Law for the Expediting of Investment for the Promotion of Construction Projects, in November 2013, when for the first time there was a single window for construction procedures, managed within the Vice-Ministry of Housing and Urban Development of the Ministry of Public Works; after 24 years of frustrated official promises. However, this initiative did not prosper as planned, disappearing with the repeal of the Law and the creation of the Directorate of Construction Procedures by means of Executive Agreement N 6, in February 2023. The figure of a single window was maintained for such purposes, but the expected efficiency improvements were not achieved; a new law was enacted, specifically to meet the demand for construction permits.