An Inflation Moment

[MizzMarr]

Assuming that there were people fitting that description, I doubt that there is anybody remaining here who came "only" because it was cheap...

 

[Ashley]

I'd really like to see the statistics on all of these foreigners allegedly purchasing real estate in Capital and driving up prices...I know that quite a few people bought cheap property between 2003-2006ish but can it really be so many?
And the only people I know that have bought apartments (some of which have nearly doubled in price from 4 years ago) in recent months have been Argentines (two in Las Canitas, actually).
Seriously...the only people I see spending money in stores are Argentines (and maybe a few Brazilians), restaurants are full, bars are full...and they can't all be soy farmers!

 

[SaraSara]

I seem to have trouble making myself understood - I was talking about RENTS. People who came here SOLELY drawn by cheap prices did not buy - they rented. So do the vast majority of expats, according to what's posted in this forum. Get it now?

Argentines are currently buying everything in installment plans, payable ONLY with credit cards issued by ARGENTINE banks, which offer them only to RESIDENTS with LOCAL SALARIES. You can finance an appliance in 48 installments, in pesos and at zero interest. With inflation raging, they are buying everything on sight before their pesos lose purchasing power. So, they are the ones who go around loaded with shopping bags. "When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping" - if there's one thing the locals know, is tough times.

OF COURSE it's Argentines who are doing the buying here - foreigners prefer to buy their stuff when they go home for a visit. They despise what's offered in local stores - judging by what's posted in this forum they would import pizzas if they could.

I do my shopping in the States, too - clothes there are not too stylish but quality is much better. But most Argentines don't have that option.

 

[French jurist]

I seem to have trouble making myself understood - I was talking about RENTS. People who came here SOLELY drawn by cheap prices did not buy - they rented. So do the vast majority of expats, according to what's posted in this forum. Get it now?

Argentines are currently buying everything in installment plans, payable ONLY with credit cards issued by ARGENTINE banks, which offer them only to RESIDENTS with LOCAL SALARIES. You can finance an appliance in 48 installments, in pesos and at zero interest. With inflation raging, they are buying everything on sight before their pesos lose purchasing power. So, they are the ones who go around loaded with shopping bags. "When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping" - if there's one thing the locals know, is tough times.

OF COURSE it's Argentines who are doing the buying here - foreigners prefer to buy their stuff when they go home for a visit. They despise what's offered in local stores - judging by what's posted in this forum they would import pizzas if they could.

I do my shopping in the States, too - clothes there are not too stylish but quality is much better. But most Argentines don't have that option.

Spot on ! Exactly

 

[starlucia]

And the only people I know that have bought apartments (some of which have nearly doubled in price from 4 years ago) in recent months have been Argentines (two in Las Canitas, actually).
Seriously...the only people I see spending money in stores are Argentines (and maybe a few Brazilians), restaurants are full, bars are full...and they can't all be soy farmers!

Well, there will always be an upper class. They may represent about 3% of the Argentine population, but what do you want to bet that almost the entire 3% are concentrated in Palermo, Recoleta, and other areas affordable only to foreigners and the local wealthy?

 

[AkBill]

Do the rich IE upper 3% really live in places like recoleta? I thought they lived in gated suburbs a little out of the centro and recoleta was more for like, the slighty above middle class

 

[Ashley]

I seem to have trouble making myself understood - I was talking about RENTS. People who came here SOLELY drawn by cheap prices did not buy - they rented. So do the vast majority of expats, according to what's posted in this forum. Get it now?

Argentines are currently buying everything in installment plans, payable ONLY with credit cards issued by ARGENTINE banks, which offer them only to RESIDENTS with LOCAL SALARIES. You can finance an appliance in 48 installments, in pesos and at zero interest. With inflation raging, they are buying everything on sight before their pesos lose purchasing power. So, they are the ones who go around loaded with shopping bags. "When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping" - if there's one thing the locals know, is tough times.

OF COURSE it's Argentines who are doing the buying here - foreigners prefer to buy their stuff when they go home for a visit. They despise what's offered in local stores - judging by what's posted in this forum they would import pizzas if they could.

I do my shopping in the States, too - clothes there are not too stylish but quality is much better. But most Argentines don't have that option.

Get it, yeah. Agree with it...not really.
I stand by my original point that I need to see the facts and figures before believing that there are enough foreigners living here, buying here, renting here, whatevering here to have any kind of significant impact on prices (certainly not more so than Argentines) and especially given that most foreign renters usually rent temp apartments and can't even access normal rentals due to the garantia issue.
I also find it difficult to comprehend how the amount of purchasing I see can all really be achieved on credit. As a RESIDENT with a LOCAL SALARY, there's no way I could shop like I see people shop...even on a credit card provided by an ARGENTINE bank (the limits of which aren't that high) and...even in 48 quotas!

 

[SaraSara]

This should be obvious, but here it goes: many landlords prefer to rent short-term to foreigners at astronomic prices rather than renting long-term to locals. Therefore, there are fewer apartments left for locals, which means more competition and higher rents for what's available.

As to the amount of purchasing Ashley sees, perhaps she shops in very affluent areas. In downtown San Isidro, and even in upscale Martinez, I don't see anyone loaded with bags. Shoppers around here are strictly local - tourists bypass us on their way to Tigre.

AkBiil, it is true that some of the "rich" live full time in Pilar, but most have apartments in the centro and in Puerto Madero and spend weekends at their homes in gated communities. That's why traffic heading out of BA on Friday afternoons is so insane, and why el centro is eerily quiet on weekends. So many confiterias are shuttered that it feels like a ghost town - the only people left are tourists doing the sights.

 

[perry]

I have to concur with Ashley and say that the wealthy Argentines are spending like crazy and lately it has become a frenzy. Many comments here are plain wrong in regards to real estate and foreigners . Currently only 2 percent of all sales in the Capital Federal are to foreign citizens and over 95 percent of all enquiries in our office are from cashed up argentinians. Many people fail to realise the wealth of portenos and their buying power. Now I am talking about between 10 and 20 percent of Buenos Aires citizens but this is over a million consumers who have at their disposal huge amount of dollars to spend .

Going back to real estate there is no country in the world that people can buy real estate in cash and in such huge amounts like this one . Properties in good areas of the Capital Federal are around US $ 200,000 and over 95% of purchases are in cash without any financing. This tells you a lot about Argentina .

In regards to inflation and foreigners I completely disagree . Argentina since its inception has been a trading society where the merchant class had a complete stanglehold on the society . The inflation we see today has been going on in Argentina for over 100 years and in the 1980s was the worlds highest ever recorded at over 5000 percent per annum . There were no expats in these periods but of course many like to find scapegoats for internal problems.

Inflation will not go down here and might get much worse and I would not be suprised in 5 years time that Buenos Aires is the worlds most expensive city to live in. It has happened before and twice in the 20th century it was the worlds most expensive . Be prepared....

 

[SaraSara]

There must be something really wrong with my English: I talk about RENTALS, and keep getting answers with apartment SALES figures.

I give up. What I said is the plain truth, but "No hay peor sordo que el que no quiere oir".