Buenos Aires Home sales on the rise, although only 6% are financed with a mortgage
With the dollar remaining very stable, dizzying inflation, and few alternatives for profitable financial investments, buying property in Buenos Aires is starting to regain popularity among savers. For this reason, just the first half of 2010 recuperated much of the ground that was lost in 2009.
In fact, according to recent reports, property sales in Capital Federal went up 22.7% in the first 6 months of 2010, in respect to the same period of the prior year. This increase, however, happened practically without any help from mortgage credits. While sales increased, the percentage of properties sold with financing help was at the lowest since 2004.
Indeed, mortgages did increase this year, but not in relation to the total number of operations. Mortgage financing helped with 7.01% of the transactions of the first half of 2009; the same period in 2010 was only 6.18%.
These figures strongly reflect the scarce quantity of operations that are carried out with credit help, showing that the recuperation of this year was done virtually solely with private funds.
So, the incidence of credit in the housing market was, in the last half of the year, the lowest that it has been in the last five years. This, even when in the last few months there were several banks that tried to improve their mortgage offerings, launching fixed-rate lines and terms of up to twenty years.
Apparently, those new credits still aren’t able to provide enough incentive to spark demand. According to the Center of Economy and Finances for the Development of Argentina, mortgage credits grew 2.5%, and now have a total stock of $10,670 million. In Capital, the mortgages that were written in the Property Registry during the first six months of the year, grew (with respect to the previous year) 8.2%, passing from 2,302 to 2,491.
These figures, however, are very modest when compared to the growth that other lines of credit have seen, such as with credit cards, which grew 35% in 2010.
In the banks, meanwhile, they assure that the demand for mortgages has started to take off. This seems to be the case with Banco Ciudad, at least, which recently launched a credit line for 20 years, with a fixed rate of 18%.
This data shows that since they launched the line, the applications for mortgage credit passed from 200 per month to nearly 400. In the worst of the crisis, these were still being requested at about 100 per month. While they’ve now reached 400, it is still less than the 700 being requested in 2006. The bank hopes to grow more in the coming months. Similar situations are happening with Banco Hipotecario, which is launching similar programs.
Go back to Argentina Real Estate News:
How to build a house in Argentina
New Property Developments on The Argentine Atlantic Coast
BUENOS AIRES HABITAT a pioneer of the extended stay hotel-style apartment concept in Buenos Aires. Offers luxurious furnished apartments in Buenos Aires for temporary rent as an alternative to high-class hotels. Whether your visit is for a few days or a few months, for vacation or business trip, we will make your Buenos Aires experience memorable. All of our Buenos Aires apartments offer high-speed internet access, cable TV and housekeeping service.
