Rent prices on a 2-bedroom apartment in Palermo and Belgrano

As we have mentioned in other occasions, due to the restrictions imposed over the dollar exchange in Argentina, the real estate business has been affected. Since real properties are not sold in dollars now, the real estate transactions have paralyzed, since owners would rather not to sell. Likewise, those who do want to buy a property have to deal with the impossibility of getting dollars, since many owners don't accept pesos.

This has caused the supply and demand in rent to grow, since those who have an empty apartment want to cover the expenses, until they can sell it, and those who can't buy will need a place to live, - so they have to rent.

According to same statistics, renting prices during the last months have slowed down in comparison with last year. Likewise, it is estimated that the raise on rent prices during 2012 will be around 15-20%, despite the inflation that the country goes through. The reason for this situation is that, even though prices go up, tenants cannot pay a higher price on rent, since their salaries don’t increase as they should. So, many owners choose to rent their properties at a lower price, instead of having to pay for all the expenses that an empty apartment generates.

These days, the types of apartments that are most required are those with 1 or 2 bedrooms; most of the people who are looking for this type of apartments are young couples. Moreover, the most popular neighborhoods for renting apartments are Palermo and Belgrano. Both are very trendy because of their strategic location, the great number of shops and places to go, etc. According to the Registry of the "Reporte Inmobiliario", the average price for a 2 bedroom apartment in the City of Buenos Aires during May, 2012 has been AR$2,228. Meanwhile, in 2011, the average price was of AR$2,063, and in 2012, AR$1,801.

More consortiums do without the full time superintendents

According to the latest news, during the last few years, the wages of the superintendents of buildings in Argentina have increased in great percentages. Some specialists say that their wages rise according to the real percentage of inflation. In contrast, the wages of a business employee rises according to the earnings of the companies. This has generated (and still generates) problems within the tenants that must pay their monthly maintenance fees, and if wages go up, so does maintenance fees. The percentage assigned to the superintendents’ wages (of the total of the maintenance fees) is of 60%.

For these reasons, the consortiums are starting to let supers go and they are hiring cleaning companies to clean the common areas of the building. Nonetheless, letting a super go is not an easy thing to do, since the superintendents’ union "Suterh” would handle the compensation fees and they enforce the super’s rights.

Another reason why the consortiums want to stop depending on building supers is the following: the tenants whose building superintendent has many years of seniority. Thanks to the negotiations done by Suterh, Supers earn 2% more over their wages. Currently, Supers wages can go from $3.500 to $9.000 pesos a month, according to their seniority. Plus, the superintendent’s expenses on light, gas, telephone, TV cable service, among others should be added to the maintenance fees. In contrast, hiring a private cleaning business could cost around $2.000 - $2.400 pesos a month.

Another reason for not having a Super is that the apartment where he/she lives may be rented and so general maintenance fees can be divided into more apartments.

Moreover, nowadays, many Supers don’t do their jobs completely, and they are not at the entrance door of the building as they should. So, this requires hiring a private security service, which means spending more money. Plus, the supper has one less thing to do.

Thus, maintenance fees are going up, not only because of inflation rates but for the Super’s wages. For this reason, among others, many consortiums are analyzing  to let supers idle and hire private companies for cleaning and security service. This new trend is becoming popular in the new buildings.

Rent price on 1-bedroom apartments in Belgrano and Palermo

Due to the new policies applied to the dollar exchange, the real estate sales have frozen during the last months in Argentina. People do not wish to sell their properties in argentine pesos, and buyers do not wish to buy dollars according to the exchange rate of the parallel dollar. This has caused the supply and demand of rent to increase. Those who do not want to sell their properties don’t want to deal with the cost of an empty apartment; and those who don’t want to buy, must rent a place to live. Generally, when the demand is high, prices go up. Nonetheless, this isn’t the case for Argentina. These days, prices over rent haven’t gone down, but neither have they gone up too much. Even though prices adapt a bit due to inflation, owners will not be able to rent their properties if the prices are too high. This is because the tenants are not able to pay high prices.

So, according to the statistics, in 2012, rent prices could go up between a 15% and a 20% during the year.

Currently, the most popular apartments are those of 1 or 2 bedroom apartments, in the neighborhoods of Belgrano and Palermo. For the case of smaller apartments, since there is a lower supply of them, the competition is higher and everyone hurries to get them.

The renting of smaller apartments, such as studios or 1-bedroom apartments, are about AR$1,700 and AR$2,300 per month. Nevertheless, the price of each apartment will depend on its location within the neighborhood (since Belgrano and Palermo are big). These two neighborhoods are really popular when it comes to looking for an apartment to rent, and that is why prices may be higher than in other places of the City of Buenos Aires. However, as we have mentioned previously, prices over rent in Buenos Aires are not going up too fast as they did last year, which is a good sign for all those tenants who are looking for a place to live.

Heating your apartment: different options

Nowadays, there are plenty of ways of heating a house. Some are more expensive to install, others to maintain, and they all have their pros and cons. Those who are planning to change their heating system or are about to install a new one, and don’t know which one to choose, we will now mention the different ways of heating your house. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that it is always cheaper to isolate the house than heating it.

Nowadays, one of the mostly used types of heating is the radiator. This type of heating system can be attached to any wall, since it does not need an outflow, like the regular gas heaters, and it can be controlled from the boiler or from each radiator. Boilers may function with natural gas or bottled gas.

Moreover, another way of heating your apartment can be through radiant heating. This type of heating system is a 20-30% more efficient than the radiators. This type of heating systems warms up uniformly and you avoid having radiators all around the house.

Moving forward, another type of heating system used these days is the electric floor heating. Since it has an individual thermostat in each room (or at least it is recommended this way), this type of heating allows you to use it only in the rooms where there are people. Moreover, some specialists say that it is easier and much cheaper to heat a floor than to heat the air, so you can save money.

Another way of heating your home is through heating panels. This type of heating system does not require any installation and it can be painted in the color of your wall. If you choose this type of heating system, you need to consider that spaces shouldn’t be too wide, neither should they be open spaces.

On the other hand, we can also mention the wood fireplace. Although this type of heating system may be nice to watch, nowadays it is too expensive to have this type of heating working at home, all day long.

Of course, we cannot fail to mention the regular gas heaters or some other electric heaters that you may find in the market. Still, you should bear in mind that the electric heating devices may be too expensive if you are planning to use it all they long.

Every type of heating is valid; you should consider the options and see which one suits your needs best.

Many constructions but few of good quality

As we have mentioned in other articles, construction in Argentina has went through an outrageous boom. The number of buildings built in the main cities, despite its size, has been really high. This can be seen especially in the city of Buenos Aires. The thing is that despite there are a lot of new buildings, their general quality is not as it promised to be.

Nowadays, most of the built constructions have been done with low-quality materials or the later have been collocated without paying attention or even without checking that the requirements were fulfilled.

With the idea of finishing the construction fast in order to sell it as soon as possible, the constructing businesses don’t pay attention to the quality of the materials or to the construction itself… They check the quantity, not the quality. This can be seen in many of the buildings that are on sale today. Another way of proving this is through the consults done at the consumer services institution. Many people have gone there and showed their concern about problems on buildings, like hidden faults, humidity, or water leaks.

One of the things that worry about the quality of the constructions is that it could bring bigger problems in the future. If their is a wrongly placed pipe, it could be wrongly placed in the whole building, and all the pipes would have to be checked, just in case. Although it could be a bit extreme, if you see there are humidity problems, or that some masonry is wrongly placed, you will doubt of the whole construction.

The bad quality of the new buildings and constructions may be a factor that prevents the properties from being sold. Nowadays, the price of property is high, and if people are planning to spend so much money, they would probable expect a good construction and not a property with bad quality products or wrongly placed things. Let’s hope that changes in the near future, or that, at least, the property price go together with its quality.

Tips and advice to avoid theft in buildings

These days, insecurity is growing, and so people should be more careful. Even though, it is not good to live paranoid and not to trust anyone, the truth is that it is better to prevent than to regret it later; today, the nicest person may turn into your worst enemy.

For this reason, we will give you some advice and tips in order to avoid theft in buildings:

- Is it really important that you keep doors locked with key 24/7; both the building door and the apartment door.

- You shouldn't allow strangers to enter the building. Likewise, the delivery of packages should be done in the building door, to avoid strangers to enter the common areas.

- Should you lose you keys, inform the consortium immediately, in order to change them.

- In relation to the locksmiths, make sure is trustworthy. Don't choose one for its price. Moreover, don't give any information such as the location of the building, names or telephone numbers.

- Don’t write you name, address or telephone on the key ring.

- When you enter your house, have your keys ready (although a bit hidden), so you don’t have to look them up on the entrance door.

- If you feel you are being followed, look for help; go to a crowded place or enter a shop. If they are following you, but they see you talking to someone, they will go.

- If you see water or smoke coming into your apartment from the corridor, don’t open the door; call the person in charge of the building and ask if they know something. It could be a trick for you to open the door.

- If they knock on the door of your apartment, check through the peephole, and ask who is it. If you don’t see anybody, or nobody answers, don’t open the door, they could be hiding.

- Know your neighbors. They are your allies, and you should look after each other.

- It is recommended that all neighbors are well informed about there activities, in order to help or to suspect when something is wrong.

Many consortiums now choose to hire private security services. This type of service can be useful since there is always someone at the door, and they can control who enters and who leaves the building. Likewise, it is advised to put mirrors for a better panoramic view when you enter the building, or security cameras.

Even though the list is long, these are only a few tips that are easy to follow and they can be of great help to avoid being burgled. Remember that if you know who lives around your house or apartment, you can help or ask for help; otherwise, you will not be able to trust anyone and you will feel alone and afraid.

Owners choose to rent instead of selling

Due to the great uncertainty the country and the world are going through, the owners of properties are not too sure about what to do with them. On the one hand, construction is stopped, together with the sale of properties. Moreover, the foreign exchange prohibitions have affected and made owners doubt when it comes to selling their properties. On the other hand, the price and expenses of having an empty property are not good in times of uncertainty and crisis.

All these factors have made the owners put the properties for rent. Instead of having a bad sale price, owners would rather rent and wait until the air is clear.

But that is not it. As we have mentioned, during the last few months, the rent supply has grown and the sale supply has decreased; so, a question arises, where did all the properties for rent come from? And the answer is quite simple:

During the last few years, Argentina has been living a construction “boom” and many people that didn't trust the bank to put their money, decided to invest in property. During the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012, many building constructions were completed, so they can now be put on sale. So, those owners of this recently finished properties that where thinking of putting them on sale, now prefer to put them for rent.

Moreover, many people usually rented their properties to foreign tourists, and now they also offer to rent for longer periods for citizens. This is because the tourism has begun to decrease a bit, due to the world economic crisis.

So, as it can be seen, owners will continue to put their properties for rent rather than to sell them at a low price, until the situation and the uncertainty is cleared. Thus, the rent supply will continue to increase, or at least will remain high for some time.