Room for rent.

People are out shopping in Chile, especially in downtown Santiago. According to a report published by U.S. retail-estate company Cushman & Wakefield, rents on Paseo Ahumada, a pedestrian-only street through the center of town, averaged between US$105 and $115 per square meter in 2005, making it the most expensive shopping street in Latin America. In second place, rents along the prestigious Avenida Santa Fe in Buenos Aires averaged $75 per month followed by Avenida Presidente Masaryk in Mexico City at $60.

Rents in shopping malls in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America are much higher due to variables calculated into leases, which often demand a percentage of sales on top of a fiat rate. However, when it comes to retail establishments along city streets, where rents tend to be fixed, somewhat modest Paseo Ahumada--no Prada or Gucci here--nevertheless rules. "We are talking about straightforward rents," says Juan Carlos Menendez, a Cushman & Wakefield associate in Santiago. Part of the reason is Chile's economy has grown while traditional consumer economies, like that of Argentina, have faltered. Also, two million people walk along Paseo Ahumada a day, and they are spending, Menendez says. Not even five years ago, when Chile was recovering from a 1999 recession, domestic demand remained sluggish at best. Copper exports, booming on Chinese demand, largely got the economy growing again.

Paseo Ahumada may be the most expensive street in the region for now, but it pales in comparison to Fifth Avenue in New York City, the most expensive in the world. Average monthly rents there came to $13,993 per square meter in 2005. Put another way, what buys a 500 square meters of store space a month in Santiago, enough for a good-sized clothing store in Chilean terms, buys four square meters on Fifth Avenue--a too-small perfume counter at best.