Building vs buying (and the great hunt for the brecha cambiaria)

[Ries]

Even in a stable dollar to peso era, its always cheaper to buy existing than to build.
Unless you do all the labor yourself.

 

[jbeas176]

i am a general contractor in the usa. i would never try to build in argentina. i bought my apartment during the contrucion phase and after 6 months i finished it myself. if its a house, your are probably going to get a general contractor and his 4 workers that can do it all. good luck

 

[FrankPintor]

Howdy Frank,

Interesting comments. I had a chance to speak to a friend of the family who owns a hardware store here. He confirmed that raw materials inexplicably tend to move in tandem with blue but aren't as tightly pegged to it as land. He also mentioned that regardless of a high or low brecha, slow periods allow much more negotiating room for costs.

I would love to hear some tips from you on what you would avoid if you were to do it again, assuming you would do it again!

Yes, even raw materials tend to move in tandem with the blue Dollar rate. It might not be completely inexplicable, sometimes some vital component of the product, or even tooling, is imported, which not only boosts the price, but can result in shortages. Last December, for example, it was almost impossible to buy aluminium-framed windows (lead times 2-3 months, sky-high prices). Or a year ago, we couldn't get granite kitchen counter-tops. At all.

About tips, let me get my thoughts in order. We are not sure we'd do it again.

 

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

Tips trust no one check everything

 

[FrankPintor]

Random thoughts over here: https://baexpats.org/threads/i-went-and-built-a-house.47738/

Tips trust no one check everything

People may not have the technical knowledge to check everything, this was certainly my case. You need someone who knows, and who you can trust, and it's not easy to find someone like that here.