Bought a house in USD via bank-to-bank transfer from Europe to Argentina

[desde_Holanda]

Just want to share my experience, since I've read so many posts about the difficulties to get the dollars inside Argentina to pay for buying a house and the (extra) costs involved, e.g. by using Banco Piano.

WIth regard to the policy of the bank here in Argentina:
I just made an internationally money transfer by bank app (Netherlands) to a dollar account from a regular bank in Argentina. I got a good rate EUR > USD (just 1% down the official market rate) and paid in total about EUR 60,00 in costs. The seller of the house got the intended amount in USD without paying any costs. The money arrived the same day in Argentina on his account. After signing the documents at the notary, he was able to access the transferred money by showing the notary documents regarding the sale of his house to his bank.

With regard to the policy of the notary we used for buying the house here:
What's important is that the money is transferred from an account with the right naming, of the buyer. I just had to deliver my account details plus a pdf with the transfer details. The seller delivered his account details.

All went fast, plain and easy.

 

[xaxage]

Thanks for the info ! Are there houses in Argentina for 60K ? Is it even currently possible ?

 

[desde_Holanda]

Are you referring to the EUR 60,00 I mentioned? These were the fixed costs of the transfer, and not 60k but only EUR 60.
I bought in CABA (city of Buenos Aires) and for 60K it's impossible to buy a (independent) house here. In the ok neighbourhoods prices for houses will start at about 250K for houses that have some outside (patio for instance) and potential. Renovated houses and houses with gardens and swimming pools usually go for 400-500K till much more, also depending the neighborhood. Make some searches on Zonaprop.com.ar to get a better idea of the market here.

 

[SlowWalker]

Thanks for the info ! Are there houses in Argentina for 60K ? Is it even currently possible ?

Yes. Location matters.

 

[LuckyLuke]

Thanks for the info ! Are there houses in Argentina for 60K ? Is it even currently possible ?

Buddy, there are currently 13,443 homes for sale under $60k in Argentina per Zonaprop.

 

[El_fuego]

how much did you transfer? its not clear.
are we saying here that a buyer can now use his foreign bank account to transfer directly to argentine dollar account of the seller? if so that changes what my understanding is, that the buyer must open his own dollar account at an argentina bank and transfer the money to that account, and from there transfer to the sellers account.

 

[desde_Holanda]

I won't tell you how much I transfer but apart from the exchange rate margin (EUR/USD) the cost of the transfer was nil.

And yes indeed, I could transfer directly to the account of the seller, from my foreign bank account. The seller nearly immediately after transferring got a notice from his bank about the arrival of the money. The bank wanted to see the signed papers before deblocking the money and make it available. The notary wanted the account and transfer details as a proof that the payment for buying the house had taken place before making the documents ready for signing.

 

[El_fuego]

I won't tell you how much I transfer but apart from the exchange rate margin (EUR/USD) the cost of the transfer was nil.

And yes indeed, I could transfer directly to the account of the seller, from my foreign bank account. The seller nearly immediately after transferring got a notice from his bank about the arrival of the money. The bank wanted to see the signed papers before deblocking the money and make it available. The notary wanted the account and transfer details as a proof that the payment for buying the house had taken place before making the documents ready for signing.

thats monumental very valuable info. if this is now the standard it saves huge headache of having to transfer to your own (buyer) argentine dollar account. This (seems) avoid the requirement of reporting to US tax authorities

 

[LuckyLuke]

This (seems) avoid the requirement of reporting to US tax authorities

For your info...

 

[El_fuego]

For your info...

View attachment 10895

what is this saying/ does this confirm that no need to report via this new method? essentially it seems like if you transfer from your US bank to sellers argentine dollar account, you dont have to report as it falls into a real estate purchase category whereas transfer from your own US account to your own Argentine account (Before then transferring to sellers account) would require some reporting due to quantity limit reach