Hey everyone,

This edition is all Buenos Aires real estate, made up of three parts: An interview with a realtor who’s been helping foreigners buy since 1996, a market update on where the BA market stands heading into 2026, and a walk-through of a $210K apartment near Parque Barrancas in the neighborhood of Belgrano.

I sat down with a veteran Buenos Aires realtor who has been helping foreign buyers navigate and buy since 1996. He and his firm have worked on everything around sourcing and buying: neighborhood selection, property search, due diligence, legal coordination, and closing.

Below is everything he shared with me about buying in Buenos Aires today:

The established picks: Recoleta, Palermo Soho, Palermo Hollywood, Las Cañitas. These are proven areas that are well-known and priced accordingly. They’re walkable & full of good restaurants and cafes. If you want to be in a neighborhood that feels immediately livable and you know it, those are the safe bets. San Telmo and Barracas if you want a little more edge and lower prices.

The best up-and-coming value call in Buenos Aires according to him right now is the neighborhood of Colegiales.

“Colegiales is the value pick. it’s immediately north of Palermo Hollywood, and we’re already seeing it grow.”

Colegiales borders Palermo Hollywood. Quieter streets, tree-lined, lots of parks, still easy to get anywhere in the city in 5-20 minutes max. Price per square meter is lower than Palermo, and the shift is already starting. If you’re optimizing for value with upside, this is the neighborhood.

He also made sure to mention Chacarita and Villa Crespo, being close behind Colegiales in terms of current value and recent growth, as well as proximity to the existing proven neighborhoods. I’ve loved staying in both Chacarita and Villa Crespo myself.

Further west, he explained that neighborhoods like Paternal, Villa del Parque, and Villa Devoto are a longer play, but worth knowing about. The San Martín rail line through that corridor recently had its tracks elevated and the old overpass torn down, which opened up the street-level and improved connectivity across the whole band. That kind of infrastructure change is historically what precedes development interest.

"Heading west, Costa Avenida Corrientes, Costa Avenida Córdoba, not before three, four, five years, but I think some very interesting developments."

Palermo Hollywood: prices are being inflated, especially for foreigners. You can do better a few blocks away.

Puerto Madero: beautiful, but it doesn’t feel like Buenos Aires. In 20 years of working with foreign buyers, almost nobody wants to live there at the end of the day.

“It really skips the whole ethos of what Buenos Aires is.”

His explained that his firm leans toward recommending foreigners to buy existing builds, as opposed to new construction, for a legal reason, not an aesthetic one.

When you buy new construction in Argentina, the property sits under the developer’s trust until surveyors subdivide the building post-completion. That can take a year or more. You own it, you have documentation, but it’s not formally registered to you yet. If the trust runs into trouble in that window, you’re in legal complexity.

He’s had clean experiences with one particular developer he’s comfortable recommending to clients, but the rule holds: due diligence on the developer is step zero.

If you’re interested in what new construction can offer: gym & pool in-building, extra security, etc. reach out to me here, and I’ll share the developer recommendation he made.

Something he made sure to remind me of: Transactions in BA are done in physical cash about 90% of the time. Bills counted on the table.

But there’s also a bill-type issue that catches people off guard: pre-1996 “small head” US hundred dollar bills are regularly refused. Torn or marked bills get rejected too. This gets written directly into purchase contracts.

Getting the right denominations to the right place at closing is a matter of logistics. These are the details worth knowing before you start.

Foreigners have the exact same ownership rights as locals in BA: That’s held true across every political administration, including the most left-leaning ones.

He explained that the notary public here carries significantly more legal weight than in the US or Canada: They’re personally liable for the transaction, with damages plus license revocation if they make a mistake.

Title checks, lien verification, and identity confirmation all run through the notary’s office before you close.

This means significantly more protection for the buyer.

Outside of BA City: provincial restrictions cap how much land foreigners can own, and there are limits on buying near water and international borders. Inside the city, those restrictions don’t apply.

Argentina doesn’t have Zillow. The local system in Argentina is called Zonaprop, that’s where brokers and buyers go.

Most serious foreign buyers find an experienced local guide early. The ones who don’t tend to show up mid-process, confused, needing help they should have lined up from the start. He had plenty of stories of foreigners mid-transaction reaching out for help, as they ran into issues.

“It costs more to make a mistake than it does to work with the right person.”

Data comes from the Colegio de Escribanos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, the official notary body that records every legal transaction in the city.

Buenos Aires closed 2025 with roughly 70,000 transactions. Best year since 2007. Fifth best on record going back to 1998.

October alone crossed 7,000 deals, a level only hit twice in 27 years of data.

This wasn’t a boom. It was a clear recovery from the 2018–2023 freeze, where transactions and pricing were both suppressed and many sellers simply sat on inventory.

Cash buyers led the move. Local USD savers and foreign buyers remained the backbone of the market, stepping in while credit remained limited.

The key shift in 2025 wasn’t explosive new demand, it was confidence returning and deals actually getting done again.

November dropped 25%, midterm elections created a processing backlog. December spiked 46% as buyers rushed to close before year-end for tax reasons.

January 2026 fell 55% from December. Some of that is seasonal, January is always slow. It was also down 6% year-over-year.

This kind of volatility is normal in Argentina. Short-term swings in volume tend to reflect timing, logistics, and macro uncertainty more than real changes in demand.

Looking at a single month in isolation can be misleading. The broader trend is what matters, and that trend points to a market that is active again after several years of stagnation.

Average transaction prices in dollars jumped roughly 32% year-over-year in January.

Not across the board, but the market is clearly repricing after several years where sellers had to discount heavily to get deals done.

Well-located, properly priced units are moving. Premium neighborhoods like Palermo, Recoleta, and Belgrano continue to see steady interest, particularly from cash buyers who understand the long-term value of these areas.

At the same time, pricing is still uneven. Overpriced units sit, while realistic sellers transact. That gap is still wide, which creates opportunities for buyers who are selective and patient.

This is less about a surge in new demand and more about prices catching up after a prolonged freeze.

October saw around 1,500 mortgaged transactions, the strongest month of the current credit cycle. Activity cooled slightly into November and early 2026.

Mortgages still make up only about 10–20% of total transactions and are concentrated mostly in the entry-level segment for local buyers.

They can add incremental demand at the margin, particularly for smaller apartments, but they are not driving pricing or overall market direction.

Buenos Aires remains fundamentally a cash-driven real estate market, and that dynamic continues to shape how deals are negotiated and closed.

If mortgage availability continues to improve over time, it could support the lower end of the market. But for now, cash remains the dominant force.

For cash buyers, especially those with USD, conditions remain favorable.

The market has clearly recovered from its lows, but activity in early 2026 is still below the October peak. That creates a window where underlying demand is present, but there are fewer buyers actively competing right now.

Prices are moving up, but not in a disorderly or speculative way. This is a normalization process after years of suppressed activity, not a rapid credit-driven expansion.

In prime neighborhoods, opportunities still exist for buyers who are patient and focused on well-priced units. The market rewards selectiveness & diligence to get a great deal, not urgency.

I visited an apartment for-sale near Parque Barrancas de Belgrano, one of my favorite parts of the city for just about everything: Walkability, safety, parks, local restaurants, and that relaxing BA urban energy.

Asking price is $210,000. It’s about 900 square feet, on the 16th floor.

This apartment is in a classic BA building. Old and full of character. Has 24h security and maintenance crew.

Note: I haven’t finished the YouTube video for this apartment yet, so I had to work with screenshot captures from the videos I took - reach out to me if you’d like the full video of the apartment already - you can reply to this email.

Starting off with the living room, it is wide and connects right to the balcony. Again, classic BA wooden flooring.

The balcony is already secured for dogs and kids. At this elevation you’re above the treeline. Good views.

Then, the master bedroom. Wall is entirely closet space. Door to small hallway, then the small hallway has the living room, bathroom, and connection to the second room & kitchen attached.

Full bathroom off the main living room & hallway.

Below is another room, works as a home office or a second bedroom, with its own bathroom and its own entrance. If you work from home, it’s a serious setup.

The kitchen is big. It is entirely separate from the rest of the apartment. Interesting part of this apartment: The kitchen has its own apartment door, meaning you have 2 entrances to your apartment. This is a classic old Buenos Aires setup.

Lastly, the second bathroom, which is at the back of the kitchen, directly behind the angle of the above photo.

This is a great apartment for a single professional working at home, or a couple or small family.

Overall: Main living area, plus a proper bedroom. Separate office with its own bathroom. 16th floor views. All in a building with real character near one of the nicer parks in the the city - a personal favorite of mine.

At $210K, it’s worth a look. Contact me here if you want details & availability on this apartment, or if you want to see similar apartments and I’ll get back to you.

That’s it for this edition -

Buenos Aires is really one of the more interesting markets in the world today. The 2025 recovery was real, and price-per-square-foot in this city is still incredibly compelling compared to any equivalent US or European city.

I’ll be continuing to cover Buenos Aires and share everything I can, including great apartments I tour.

If you’re interested in buying in Buenos Aires or anywhere else in Argentina, reply to this email or reach out to me here and I’ll send you everything you need to know along with my best local contacts for active listings.