Housing development in the central-south area of Chile (Regions VII, VIII and IX) gives response to the needs for housing with low density detached dwellings of similar typologies and constructive systems. The challenges of the reconstruction process after the earthquake of the 27th of February 2010 are been faced with similar buildings, applying a thermal regulation that is innovative in Latin America, but not rigorous enough when compared with international standards that achieve more important reductions in energy demand. In addition, the climatic conditions of the area would allow a considerable improvement of the thermal performance of buildings if some typological strategies related to group layout, solar incidence, thermal mass and thermal envelope are considered. This article reviews some environmental and morphological characteristics of residential buildings in the area, proposing recommendations for design and construction phase that could be applied in order to promote more energy efficient housing.