Buenos Aires Photo 2010

Over 3,200 photos will be on display now through Sunday at the Palais de Glace.

Today the sixth edition of Buenos Aires Photo, Latin America’s most important photography show, opens to the public at Recoleta’s Palais de Glace. Between now and the 31st of October, the works of over 150 artists from Argentina, Canada, Chile, Spain, the United States, Perú and Uruguay will be on display and the forty participating galleries are exhibiting the photos by their artists throughout the two stories of the Palais de Glace.

Over 3,200 photographs,  ranging from landscapes to portraits and still lifes to abstract images, cover the walls of the venue. Their subjects evoke a wide range of emotion as they touch on poverty, sexuality, and nature, among others. Each night, the Programa Auditorio Fundación Deloitte will put on roundtable discussions where special guests will delve into some of the questions and pressing issues that affect the world of photography, such as photography and the art market and the reconciliation of history and contemporary art.

The American Express Foundation donated $20,000 USD to the Asociación Amigos de MALBA for the acquisition of works from BA Photo. Liliana Porter’s “Red with him” and Nicola Constantino’s “Autoretrato Nicola según Berni” were chosen by MALBA’s selection committee.

For more on Buenos Aires artists and Latin American art trends, download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.



InvestBA was pleased to participate in the 2010 edition of EXPO Real Estate Argentina held last week at the Buenos Aires Hilton in Puerto Madero. The annual event, sponsored by the Urban Developers Business Chamber (CEDU in castellano), brings together a healthy cross-section of developers, brokers and various real estate industry service providers.

The event had two key components: a large Expo downstairs and a Congreso upstairs where attendees heard panel discussions on a wide variety of topics including Investing in Mixed-Use Real Estate Projects, Tourism as a Motor for Real Estate Development and Fideicomisos al costo, a popular vehicle for pre-construction investment in new real estate projects. The Expo featured a main room with the majority of brokers and developers, while a secondary hall showcased real estate developments in Uruguay exclusively.

For more information about real estate opportunities in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Uruguay, download IncomeBA and the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

Montevideo Airport

First Impressions Are Lasting: Montevideo's ultra-modern airport is a wonderful gateway to Uruguay.

Back-to-back stories this week from MercoPress highlight the tourism attraction and real estate growth in Uruguay’s two leading destinations: Montevideo and Punta del Este.

The statistics are encouraging, as they demonstrate some positive regional trends: more inbound visitors from countries besides Argentina, the long-standing number one for tourism exports to Uruguay, and a greater willingness among Uruguayans to explore other corners of the Southern Cone.

In fact, Uruguayans posted triple-digit gains of citizens visiting Paraguay (+228% ) and Chile (+102%). Of those foreigners visiting Uruguay, the numbers reflect the economic status quo in key international markets: almost 25% more real-empowered Brazilians and 7% fewer visitors from the U.S.

Montevideo’s cultural and urban Renaissance is finally being reflected in the tourism numbers, as more visitors made MVD their primary destination in the first six months of 2010 compared to Punta del Este. But don’t feel bad for PDE. Data released last week by the country’s Tourism Office shows $1.5 billion USD in real estate transactions taking place in the popular beachside destination over the past 18 months alone. The government estimates approximately 18.2 million square feet of new residential construction has been built in the last five years and, given current absorption rates, it’s not surprising the Mujica government is encouraging more foreign investment.

For more information on Uruguay’s quality of life and cost of living, visit our archives and download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

Santander Branch in Buenos Aires

With 37 million clients and 5,800 branches, Santander is the leading bank franchise in Latin America.

If you had any doubts about where the smart money is moving globally, you might want to take a look at Grupo Santander, the largest bank in the Euro-zone and one of the largest banks in the world.

In recent interviews with everyone from Bloomberg to El Pai­s, Santander officials are understandably bullish on Argentina, Brazil and Latin America in general…so much so bank executives feel the region will outperform Asia in the coming years.

Santander’s Director for the region Francisco Luzon sees the XXI century as Latin America’s inflection point: “In this century, Latin America will move beyond being a ‘developing’ region. Latin America has talent and structural competitive advantages that will make it a winner in the XXI century.” Luzon believes Latin America is the region best positioned to benefit from the process of globalization, while banks like Santander are well positioned to capitalize on the continued bancarizacion of LatAm.

Santander estimates the financial systems of the seven core Latin countries, Brasil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia y Uruguay, have a current valuation of US$500 billion and could reach $1 trillion by 2015. If full-year projections for 2010 are any indication of what’s to come, it’s easy to understand why a bank like Santander sees the future in Latin America. According to Bloomberg, the region will account for 45% of the bank’s profit this year, up from 39% in 2009.

For more information about investment opportunities in Argentina and Uruguay, download IncomeBA and the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

Villa Crespo

Dame Dos: BA's Villa Crespo has quickly become the epicenter of outlet shopping in Argentina.

It used to be that Argentines had to travel roughly 4,500 miles to South Florida or Orlando’s International Drive to indulge in deep discount retail therapy, but it seems the outlet concept has caught on fire in one BA neighborhood.

Villa Crespo has long been known as a solid, middle-class residential neighborhood, but the 2001 financial crisis left this BA barrio with several abandoned warehouses and residences. Today, according to Clari­n, many of those buildings are being bought for upwards of US$500,000 and converted into the Buenos Aires equivalent of Sawgrass Mills.

The phenomenon began five years ago when several large BA clothing stores started opening their first outlets around Gurruchaga and Aguirre. Today there are over 60 outlets in a four-block zone and close to 100 in a 10-block region. The retail pioneers like Hunor Gobos closed their stores on Avenida Florida five years ago, opened the first VC stores and have watched sales and shoppers grow every year since.

Clari­n says the Boom de los Outlets has really exploded over the last ten months, and the area is teeming with bargain-seeking tourists, especially Brazilians, Chileans and Uruguayans. Daniel Chain of the Buenos Aires Department of Urban Development says prices in Villa Crespo are still lower than Palermo but says they will continue rising, as Villa Crespo will be one of the prime beneficiaries of GCBA’s new infrastructure to control flooding. (Full article in Spanish)

For more information about upscale shopping and luxury living in Buenos Aires, download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

 

Bariloche

Mendoza

Uruguay

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