BuySellBA
Administrator
5 reasons why you should hurry up to buy a property - La Nacion Propiedades
Source:
Las 5 razones por las que hay que apurarse para comprar una propiedad
El 2024 fue un año bisagra para el mercado inmobiliario argentino y varios números anticipan que el 2025 será superador
www.lanacion.com.ar
January 29, 2025
2024 was a pivotal year for the Argentine real estate market and several figures anticipate that 2025 will be a better year
By Maria Josefina Lanzi
5 Key Factors That Predict Property Closing Prices Could Rise by More Than 10% in 2025
Since the emergence of mortgage credit in April last year , there are more and more people interested in buying a property and fulfilling the long-awaited dream of owning a home. In this context, several market figures show that prices could continue to rise, exceeding the 6.8% increase in listing prices in 2024. Today, the square meter averages US$2,325 m² in the city of Buenos Aires. These are figures that encourage brokers and push interested parties to decide to close a deal.
“2024 left us with a very positive balance, because the sector acquired a dynamism that it had lost during a long period before,” Gabriela Goldszer, director of Ocampo Properties, shares to LA NACION . “If the current scenario continues, with inflation falling and with exchange rate stability, the real estate market in 2025 will have a better performance than last year, which was already excellent,” explains Fabián Achával, from the eponymous real estate company, who anticipates an increase in closing prices of 10% on average.” He clarifies that, by “average” he means that there will be segments and neighborhoods with steeper increases, among them, the most consolidated and dynamic neighborhoods , and properties with lower tickets , where the investor and demand can aim.
But beyond the local dynamics of some neighborhoods, there are some specific trends that anticipate that property listing prices will continue to rise this year.
In 2024, property listing prices increased by 6.8%sirtravelalot - Shutterstock
1) Values are still lagging and may continue to rise
2024 saw the largest increase in the square meter of listings in the last seven years, since, since 2017 - when UVA mortgage loans were booming in Argentina - there had been no increases of that level. But the most relevant part of this analysis is what happened between 2019 and 2023, a period in which values fell by 24%, a percentage that shows how outdated the market is, given that last year listing prices barely recovered by 6.8%. In other words, there is still a lot of growth left to reach the numbers of 2018.When explaining this increase in values, Achával points out that there is a strong change in expectations and an increase in demand for money laundering and the offer of mortgage credit - US$840 million were granted in 2024 -, which is already driving more than 1,100 operations per month. Economist Federico González Rouco affirms that this volume of mortgage credit will continue to drive up real estate market prices. "After having registered an average increase of 7% in 2024, the price of real estate will consolidate this improvement and could grow up to 20% more," he analyzes .
The growing increase in construction costs in dollars deserves a separate analysis , a phenomenon that could also boost the value of used properties. During the past year, it increased by 52.7% according to Zonaprop data, which complicated the financial schemes of developers. Many of them closed the purchase of the land in exchange for meters that end up costing more than a year ago. “Building today costs 3.3 times more than in October 2020, the minimum in the Zonaprop series, and 47.7% above the average for 2012-2023,” explains Leandro Molina, country manager of Grupo QuintoAndar for Argentina and Peru.
The real estate market is experiencing a sharp change in expectations and an increase in demand for money laundering and the offer of mortgage credit Ricardo Pristupluk
2) Owners hardly negotiate the price of properties anymore
Looking at the closing prices of transactions, values are also rising. Negotiation margins in December stood at 4.44% on average, a figure that reflects that properties are being sold at a price closer to the one originally published, with less room for haggling.The percentage of counteroffers is particularly important, since in the real estate market, the reduction of amounts in negotiations anticipates an upward cycle in the different price segments. “If before the owner accepted a counteroffer of up to 10% of the value of a property for fear of losing the possibility of selling it, today they are in a position to be more assertive in the negotiation ,” explains Santiago Mieres, from the real estate company of the same name.
3) The supply of properties for sale is decreasing in a market with increasing demand
“Although there is still no stability in the sector and the construction sector is facing a difficult time due to the increase in the cost of construction, the supply of properties for sale is decreasing, which may lead to an increase in prices,” says Lisandro de Achával, director of Achával Cornejo.
The supply of properties for sale is decreasing year-on-yearImage Point Fr - Shutterstock
Indeed, although there was a monthly growth in the supply of properties for sale between July and November 2024, the downward trend in the year-on-year dynamics persists, with a decrease of 7.2% compared to the same period of the previous year (second half of the year), accumulating 28 consecutive months of declines.
In this way, in relation to the 2022 highs, the supply of apartments was reduced by 41.5%, which indicates a significant change in the market configuration, according to data from Radar Inmobiliario. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that the stock of apartments in December is still 55% higher than in December 2017 , when there was a boom in mortgage loans during the Macri era. “It is likely that this is due to buyers who had withdrawn their properties from sale in previous years, due to the drop in prices, and who are now publishing again with the expectation of a rise,” reflects Juan Manuel Vázquez Blanco, economist and general manager of Fabián Achával Propiedades.
4) Visits to real estate portals are increasing
Another of the numbers that anticipate green shoots for this year is the number of searches on real estate portals. Visits registered on the main property offering sites reached a total of 16,670,000 in December, which represents an increase of 73% compared to December 2023 and speaks of 11 consecutive months of year-on-year increases , according to figures from Daniel Bryn, a broker at Zipcode and Monitor Inmobiliario.“The fact that the macroeconomic context is more balanced translates into renewed interest in investments in bricks and mortar, valued for their stability compared to other options. In addition, the competitiveness of local prices compared to other markets in the region reinforces the attractiveness of investing in Argentina,” adds Miguel Ludmer, director of Interwin.
Visits recorded on the main property listing sites reached a total of 16,670,000 in DecemberFabian Marelli - THE NATION
5) Demand continues to grow
“Due to the housing deficit that exists in our country, the demand for housing in Argentina is virtually infinite ,” says Damián Tabakman, president of the Chamber of Urban Developers. In concrete numbers, in December 2024, 7,667 deeds were registered in the city of Buenos Aires, which speaks of an increase of 68.1% compared to the same month of the previous year and 33 consecutive months of year-on-year increase in operations. Achával explains that the driving force behind these operations is linked to the increase in demand for the supply of mortgage credit and money laundering, and adds that other drivers are prices, which remain historically low, the strong change in expectations and exchange rate stability.Thus, 2024 closed with almost 55,000 real estate transactions in the city of Buenos Aires, when in 2023 there were 40,000, in 2023, 40,539; in 2022 they were around 33,000; in 2021, 28,000; and in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, less than 20,000. “Mortgage loan lines pushed purchases and generated an acceleration in sales volume, helping to expand demand,” shares Martín Boquete, director of Toribio Achával, who reveals that in his case, the time to close operations also decreased, “it fell by 20%, since what used to take 5 months to sell, in 2024 took only four.”
The credit effect is also reflected in the purchase and sale operations in CABA, which in seven months went from having 115 mortgage deeds to more than 1,100. If we look at it year-on-year - taking into account the December figures - we are talking about an increase of 874.14% compared to the same month last year.
González Rouco creates a Mortgage Credit Access Index , which seeks to anticipate the evolution of mortgage credit based on the real capacity of a household to meet the basic requirements demanded by banks. The key data is that it improved considerably in 2024, thanks to the improvement in the salary in dollars vs. the value of the properties. “In 2025, the Index is expected to remain at current levels , given the combination of improved income offset by higher interest rates and rising property prices, which will require a higher income to access the same property,” he analyzes.
Which apartments are likely to increase in price with the loans? Diego Cazes, director of LJ Ramos, predicts that smaller and lower-value apartments, especially those between US$80,000 and US$200,000, will see the biggest price increases.
Finally, money laundering is another tool that is responsible for stirring up the hornet's nest of demand. "It represented another key opportunity for the sector in 2024 and could add new buyers to the market, especially those looking to apply their formalized savings to real estate," concludes Ludmer.
www.buysellba.com
