FrankPintor
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I'm obviously riffing off @Ries' longstanding thread "I went to see a band...", I hope he doesn't mind. This is the first of what could be a multipart post about how to build a house here in Argentina, with some references to out experiences doing that about one hour north of CABA. Even if there's an audience of one (@LuckyLuke 
) I'll put it out there.
You're going to need to start your research long before you start your construction project. Even before having your plot of ground. Assuming that you're looking to build in a gated community (which seems to be the norm for middle class upwards), you need to find one with conditions that suit you, appropriate monthly expenses, and so on. There are different models of community, including "barrios cerrados" with fences and 24h security, "barrios semicerrados" with an entrance gate but no or less security, and "barrios abiertos". Depending on the services and amenities provided (which can include restaurants, gyms, swimming pools, and golf clubs at the top end), your monthly expenses will vary, from not much to several hundred thousand Pesos per month. Also, the legal form of the community can attract more or less provincial taxes.
Your initial contract may be a simple "compraventa", which at some point needs to be formalized and registered ("escriturado"). The time to do this can vary enormously by municipality, and and until this is done, you'll be at the mercy of whatever community administration is in place. A common administrative form is a "fideicomiso", or a trust, which can turn out to be a self-perpetuating gravy train, contracting out services to friends of the administration at well above market prices.
Get a building site with enough space to be happy in. In my opinion, this would be 1000sqm minimum. There are developments offering 300 and 500sqm, but it's going to be like living in the city, just without shops close by.
You will need to submit construction plans to your municipality, and, possibly to your barrio. This process can take several months. Your plans will need to be presented by an architect, or, if your proposed house is 5 storeys or less, by a "maestro mayor de obras" (MMO). The MMO is a recognized qualification from a technical college, and MMOs are allowed to design residential buildings and to act as construction managers. However, a qualification is no guarantee that you will get a good MMO. Both architects and MMOs tend to take on too many projects, so the end result of your construction will depend more on the quality of the more or less unsupervised construction team. We've been told of home builders who went through 5 construction teams, we went through 3.
You will most likely need an MMO to direct the construction anyway. We found Argentinian architects to be quite expensive and also fairly unimaginative. You could get a architect outside of Argentina to create a design you like, and then contract either one here, or an MMO, to adjust the plans to conform with local regulations. This is what we did.
You need to cost your project, so you have a reasonable number with which to compare to the offers you receive. There is an Argentinian website with estimated costs for 1 and 2 storey houses, I'll see if I can find it. I believe most contracts are of the turnkey type ("llave en mano"), which is a fixed-price contract. Remember, there is a huge amount of cynicism in the construction industry, contractors will bid too low, knowing they can't finish the job for the amount agreed, but their intention is to "capture" you, finishing the money before finishing the house, and then saying "well, what are you going to do, I need more money to complete the job".
I don't see any downside to specifying a contract in Dollars, we did that because we wanted to avoid weekly or monthly discussions and adjustments. Do whatever works for you. Remember that materials more or less follow the Blue Dollar rate. Design your contract with milestones, and specify in detail what has to be done to reach a milestone. You need to resist demands for payments outside the milestone schedule, with justifications like "we need to get materials before the price goes up".
Try to get good estimates for the building materials. In my opinion, the CAD programs used by architects and MMOs should give the amounts required, but in our experience that didn't happen.
Construction, at least around Buenos Aires, is generally bricks and mortar. Consider alternative construction techniques, like steel or wood frame. Some communities don't allow wood frame. We priced steel frame construction, and it was more expensive than the traditional method. Also, there's not so much flexibility with the type of house, you get to choose from a catalogue. But you would at least have straight walls.
You need to find a good building materials supplier ("corralón"), and keep several million Pesos on account with them. These suppliers will send you sand, stones, cement, and so on. You open an account, so that you don't have to go there in person every time the building contractors say they need more, which can be several times a day.
The construction market is very segmented here, so you have to find separate suppliers for tiles, windows, doors, electrical supplies, and so on. Or you could go to Easy / Sodimac but it's much more expensive.
For tiles (unless you go for wood parquet / laminate), you have the options of ceramics and porcelains. Porcelain is 2-3 times the price of ceramic, but worthwhile in the long term for appearance and ease of cleaning. Definitely use porcelain in areas likely to get wet.
For windows, the default option is "Modena" double glazing with aluminium frames. PVC will be much more expensive. For panoramic windows you will need to be creative, the glass sheets come in standard sizes (2x3m or something like that).
Arrange contracts and lock down prices for as much of this as you can before starting. You should be able to store at least part of your materials onsite.
Once you get started, the initial earthworks will create a platform for the house so water runs out of it, not into it. Then a reinforced concrete base will be poured. At this point, you need to be sure that the pipes for the plumbing are integrated into the base. Sloppy contractors will skip this, with consequences later on.
Then the walls will go up, concrete supports and bricks. For 1-2 storey buildings you don't need any special bricks. We have a 2-storey house with a flat roof, so the base, first floor, and roof are all poured reinforced concrete.
It's convenient if you have all the cable channels and pipes accounted for in your "obra gris". Even better if you've prepared for the air conditioning (some communities insist on the external modules being invisible, so putting them on the roof is one solution, but that comes with other problems, like leaks). If you can manage to have closets pre-formed at this stage you will be a hero.
So, that was the easy part. You're maybe a third of the way through. There's more to come
) I'll put it out there.You're going to need to start your research long before you start your construction project. Even before having your plot of ground. Assuming that you're looking to build in a gated community (which seems to be the norm for middle class upwards), you need to find one with conditions that suit you, appropriate monthly expenses, and so on. There are different models of community, including "barrios cerrados" with fences and 24h security, "barrios semicerrados" with an entrance gate but no or less security, and "barrios abiertos". Depending on the services and amenities provided (which can include restaurants, gyms, swimming pools, and golf clubs at the top end), your monthly expenses will vary, from not much to several hundred thousand Pesos per month. Also, the legal form of the community can attract more or less provincial taxes.
Your initial contract may be a simple "compraventa", which at some point needs to be formalized and registered ("escriturado"). The time to do this can vary enormously by municipality, and and until this is done, you'll be at the mercy of whatever community administration is in place. A common administrative form is a "fideicomiso", or a trust, which can turn out to be a self-perpetuating gravy train, contracting out services to friends of the administration at well above market prices.
Get a building site with enough space to be happy in. In my opinion, this would be 1000sqm minimum. There are developments offering 300 and 500sqm, but it's going to be like living in the city, just without shops close by.
You will need to submit construction plans to your municipality, and, possibly to your barrio. This process can take several months. Your plans will need to be presented by an architect, or, if your proposed house is 5 storeys or less, by a "maestro mayor de obras" (MMO). The MMO is a recognized qualification from a technical college, and MMOs are allowed to design residential buildings and to act as construction managers. However, a qualification is no guarantee that you will get a good MMO. Both architects and MMOs tend to take on too many projects, so the end result of your construction will depend more on the quality of the more or less unsupervised construction team. We've been told of home builders who went through 5 construction teams, we went through 3.
You will most likely need an MMO to direct the construction anyway. We found Argentinian architects to be quite expensive and also fairly unimaginative. You could get a architect outside of Argentina to create a design you like, and then contract either one here, or an MMO, to adjust the plans to conform with local regulations. This is what we did.
You need to cost your project, so you have a reasonable number with which to compare to the offers you receive. There is an Argentinian website with estimated costs for 1 and 2 storey houses, I'll see if I can find it. I believe most contracts are of the turnkey type ("llave en mano"), which is a fixed-price contract. Remember, there is a huge amount of cynicism in the construction industry, contractors will bid too low, knowing they can't finish the job for the amount agreed, but their intention is to "capture" you, finishing the money before finishing the house, and then saying "well, what are you going to do, I need more money to complete the job".
I don't see any downside to specifying a contract in Dollars, we did that because we wanted to avoid weekly or monthly discussions and adjustments. Do whatever works for you. Remember that materials more or less follow the Blue Dollar rate. Design your contract with milestones, and specify in detail what has to be done to reach a milestone. You need to resist demands for payments outside the milestone schedule, with justifications like "we need to get materials before the price goes up".
Try to get good estimates for the building materials. In my opinion, the CAD programs used by architects and MMOs should give the amounts required, but in our experience that didn't happen.
Construction, at least around Buenos Aires, is generally bricks and mortar. Consider alternative construction techniques, like steel or wood frame. Some communities don't allow wood frame. We priced steel frame construction, and it was more expensive than the traditional method. Also, there's not so much flexibility with the type of house, you get to choose from a catalogue. But you would at least have straight walls.
You need to find a good building materials supplier ("corralón"), and keep several million Pesos on account with them. These suppliers will send you sand, stones, cement, and so on. You open an account, so that you don't have to go there in person every time the building contractors say they need more, which can be several times a day.
The construction market is very segmented here, so you have to find separate suppliers for tiles, windows, doors, electrical supplies, and so on. Or you could go to Easy / Sodimac but it's much more expensive.
For tiles (unless you go for wood parquet / laminate), you have the options of ceramics and porcelains. Porcelain is 2-3 times the price of ceramic, but worthwhile in the long term for appearance and ease of cleaning. Definitely use porcelain in areas likely to get wet.
For windows, the default option is "Modena" double glazing with aluminium frames. PVC will be much more expensive. For panoramic windows you will need to be creative, the glass sheets come in standard sizes (2x3m or something like that).
Arrange contracts and lock down prices for as much of this as you can before starting. You should be able to store at least part of your materials onsite.
Once you get started, the initial earthworks will create a platform for the house so water runs out of it, not into it. Then a reinforced concrete base will be poured. At this point, you need to be sure that the pipes for the plumbing are integrated into the base. Sloppy contractors will skip this, with consequences later on.
Then the walls will go up, concrete supports and bricks. For 1-2 storey buildings you don't need any special bricks. We have a 2-storey house with a flat roof, so the base, first floor, and roof are all poured reinforced concrete.
It's convenient if you have all the cable channels and pipes accounted for in your "obra gris". Even better if you've prepared for the air conditioning (some communities insist on the external modules being invisible, so putting them on the roof is one solution, but that comes with other problems, like leaks). If you can manage to have closets pre-formed at this stage you will be a hero.
So, that was the easy part. You're maybe a third of the way through. There's more to come
