Apartment Rental shortage..!

[earlyretirement]

Could you please explain how an expat in Buenos Aires (even if they have local or foreign income and a DNI) can acomplish renting an unfurnished apartment for three years like a "local" (without extreme diffculty), considering (if my informatio is up to date) that they would need to have a local to either "sign on" to a guarantia purchased from a financial institution or have someone else0" pledgie" a property they own as collateral? That is something that is highly unlikely to happen outside of close family members and rarely happens between friends..

I've owned (and still own) several apartments in Buenos Aires. I would NEVER rent them long-term out on 3 year long term contracts. This seems crazy to me because of the uncertainty of the exchange rate. There are limits to what you can increase it each year. And you have the risk that the tenant stops paying.

Locals ask their friends/family who own a property to be a guarantor to essentially co-sign. And it's crazy as you can't be your own guarantor. For example, many years ago when I was renting my office space, I already owned many properties and the owner wouldn't let me use my own property. I had to ask a friend to co-sign for me and be my guarantor.

Many locals do rent out on these longer term contracts but the OP has a good point that as the economy is so poor, and the tourism is picking up again.... it makes no sense to do these longer term 3 year contracts.

My apartment I rent on Airbnb and it's quite busy in good parts of the city. Last month I made almost $2,000 US just that month on rentals. No way I'd ever make close to that on a longer-term contract.

Besides a period of time during COVID when the building wouldn't let any foreigners in the building, it's stayed fairly busy. With the crazy exchange rate I'm actually paying less HOA fees than I did 10 years ago in US dollar terms.

 

[Che1990]

Could you please explain how an expat in Buenos Aires (even if they have local or foreign income and a DNI) can acomplish renting an unfurnished apartment for three years like a "local" (without extreme diffculty), considering (if my informatio is up to date) that they would need to have a local to either "sign on" to a guarantia purchased from a financial institution or have someone else0" pledgie" a property they own as collateral? That is something that is highly unlikely to happen outside of close family members and rarely happens between friends..

Even for locals its nearly impossible

 

[Rich One]

The next best option is a 3 month temporary rental in pesos, that can be renewed indefinitely with sharp increases at the rate of 100% p.a. or more.

 

[Che1990]

for me, renting is the worst part about living in BA. Complicated and I find the estate agents are horriblly rude and incompetent, there are exceptions tho

 

[earlyretirement]

for me, renting is the worst part about living in BA. Complicated and I find the estate agents are horriblly rude and incompetent, there are exceptions tho

I totally agree. I think realtors here in Buenos Aires are really flaky. They think you are doing them a favor by using them even though they stand to make a commission. Many of the good realtors that formally were in BA have retired or got out of the industry.

I have a lot of local friends that own properties and NONE of them do them on long term contracts in pesos to locals. All of them rent them out on Airbnb and some of them rent them to companies in pesos that even sign as the guarantor for the employee. Or some ex-pats have rented up to a year lease but some of them pre-pay a year at a time to avoid the guarantor issue.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Well, I use Zonaprop and ArgenProp and soloduenos, can you please name those sites that have hundreds of apartment rentals available? would be very helpful. In the previous mentioned sites many of the rentals are in US$ and only temporary in CABA . A 3 year contract in pesos..? hard to find.
Thanks for your comments and help.

There are not apparments available for rent in pesos. i read there were less than 400 in CABA.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

You can buy an studio (office) since 12.000 at dowtown and recicle it for 2000 and you become an owner. I just bought an office 70 mt2 at the Court District for 74.000 and a 100 mt2 appartment plus its own parking and baulera (10 mt2 storage) for 133.000 at Recoleta. Real estate is cheap to buy now. You can also buy land and build a house in the suburbs in pesos since 500 usd per mt2. I bought 1 block (10.000 mt2) in a close country club in Open door for 65.000 usd.

 

[earlyretirement]

There are not apparments available for rent in pesos. i read there were less than 400 in CABA.

That is 100% correct. I'm heavily involved in the real estate industry in Buenos Aires. There are almost no long term rentals because of the insane laws that they passed during COVID. Namely that they don't allow owners to change the price more than 1 time per year, the term has to be 3 year contracts and fixed in PESOS. That's crazy.

You can buy an studio (office) since 12.000 at dowtown and recicle it for 2000 and you become an owner. I just bought an office 70 mt2 at the Court District for 74.000 and a 100 mt2 appartment plus its own parking and baulera (10 mt2 storage) for 133.000 at Recoleta. Real estate is cheap to buy now. You can also buy land and build a house in the suburbs in pesos since 500 usd per mt2. I bought 1 block (10.000 mt2) in a close country club in Open door for 65.000 usd.

You are 100% correct Bajo. This is the BEST time to buy real estate in Buenos Aires. It's very cheap now with inflation adjusted dollars. It does NOT make sense to rent right now whether you're talking commercial or residential. People are going to kick themselves in the ass that they didn't buy when property prices are so low.

I saw this same thing in 2002 after corralito. People told me I was crazy then to buy up real estate and how I'd "lose money". We laughed when we sold it 3X or 4X several years later. I bought every single apartment, house and land that I could find in Recoleta, Palermo (especially Soho and Hollywood before it became what it is now).

Prices don't go up forever and they don't go down forever. In good times people think it will keep going up. (Look at the USA now). When it goes bad people think it will fall to $0 which isn't true.

The key is to be unemotional and think logically. I bought my house in USA at the bottom in 2010 for $960,000. It's now worth $3 million. Now is the time to unload USA real estate. Commercial real estate is going to absolutely CRASH in 2024 and 2025. The ARM's are resetting. It's a race to the exits. I have investors paying 40 cents on the dollar at already depressed prices. That shows me that things are going to crash in the USA.

It's all playing out before our eyes. Take a look at the below:

https://www.costar.com/article/301639763/park-ceo-wont-rule-out-handing-back-keys-for-san-francisco-hotels

Then see this - https://sfist.com/2023/06/05/owner-...re-is-walking-away-surrendering-it-to-lender/

You're going to see more and more commercial buildings just walk away from their equity and hand in the keys. Why? Because no one is buying it unless they discount over 50%. And even then some won't buy. And they can't come up with more $ or refinance at much higher % rates. This commercial disaster is going to cause smaller and regional banks to go under in 2024 and 2025. You're going to see the economy in general affected by this.

Buenos Aires real estate is CHEAP now as Bajo mentioned. I have been waiting years and years to see this kind of situation again in Buenos Aires. Started buying a few weeks ago. It's at the bottom or almost near the bottom. People have often asked if I can see the future. I just laugh but in a way I can see the future. I've had this gift for the past 30 years or so. You're welcome....

"Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy only when others are fearful.” Warren Buffett

 

[Quilombo]

I wish I could access credit to buy something here, it's a great time to and the rent prices aren't getting better anytime soon, keep seeing 600 USD+ for a bachelors as if that's remotely acceptable even if we weren't in 12.5% inflation

 

[Ceviche]

I find the estate agents are horriblly rude and incompetent.

Nailed it!!

My own experience is ditto after dealing with several real estate agents in BA over 17 years.