Rent housing in pesos and in the long term it is a daunting task in Buenos Aireswhere the temporary offer dominates and in Dollars due to a inflation triple-digit annual growth that blew up the market for real estate.
Martina Campos López (33 years old) and her partner (43) have been searching for more than a year despite having good jobs – she an anthropologist, he a computer technician – and the support of guarantors, something that puts them at the top of the list of candidates.
Some time ago they left the apartment they rented with the plan to save for a few months to rent something better.
“It was a bad decision, since then we have lived at my mother’s house, our life is on pause, the temporary became permanent, it is discouraging,” says Campos, who keeps most of his things and those of his 2-year-old son packed, but the refrigerator, coffee maker, and microwave accumulate.
Before they used less than 50% of their income to pay the rent, “Now not even putting 70% we get housing”, it states.
The situation has become dramatic in the last six months with almost zero supply as inflation has accelerated, which was 8.4% in April, the highest monthly data in three decades and accumulated 32% in the first quarter.
“We have nothing in pesos and when a property enters us, it lasts hours, people are desperate, they reserve by looking only at the photos”describes Fernanda Ledesma, an experienced real estate agent.
The offer turned to the temporary segment at dollar value to compensate for the vertiginous devaluation of the currency. The result is a bargain price for international tourism due to oversupply.
It is a niche disputed by owners fleeing from the legal requirements of the traditional rental market, where lCurrent law allows a single annual adjustment of the rental value and contracts for a minimum of three yearsdifficult conditions to digest when inflation is projected above 120% in 2023 and the exchange rate gap between the official and parallel markets is close to 100%.
Jamie Larson, a 29-year-old New Zealander, rents in dollars a modern furnished apartment with a panoramic view in the sought-after neighborhood of Palermo, for which he was able to choose from several offered in the same building.
“For what I pay here, in London I would live in a shoebox”says Larson, who came to Argentina for a few months and has been here for three years working in IT for a California company.
Larson considers “completely crazy” what Argentines go through to be able to rent. “It’s becoming a situation where the locals can’t afford to live in their own town, which is absolutely ridiculous.”says.
distorted market
“The rental market is completely distorted”, explains Alejandro Bennazar, president of the Argentine Real Estate Chamber. He blames high inflation already “the new rental law that has only made the problem worse.”
The law, in force since June 2020, established an index for income adjustment that combines the evolution of wages and inflation in equal parts.
“It is a time bomb”says Bennazar.
According to the index, contracts are adjusted 100% in June after being frozen for a year, which discourages owners from renting.
“I prefer to have it empty”says Germán Matienzo, owner of two apartments in Caballito, a middle-class neighborhood.
The option of furnishing the apartment for temporary rental is limited by the regulations of some buildings. The owners end up renting them informally and impose contracts with leonine clauses or hang the sale sign.
But that led to an oversupply for sale and a drop in prices that traditionally…
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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