Palermo barrio porteño

The diversity of properties and prices within Palermo makes it appealing for porteños and foreigners alike.

The Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo is the largest and most populated in the City of Buenos Aires. It also has the most gallerias and boutiques, the most museums and cultural centers, the most gourmet restaurants, the most Subte stations, the best hospitals, the most miles of Mejor en Bici paths and, of course, the most parks and sprawling green spaces. All of which makes today’s headline in Clarín seem like a statement of the obvious.

“Palermo is Increasingly More Expensive.” Wow! Imagine that. Real estate prices are rising in a neighborhood with all of those natural and man-made superlatives. And the second half of the headline is borderline hyperbole: “Palermo Prices Are Approaching Puerto Madero.”  No BA barrio real estate prices are approaching the Neighborless Nirvana of Puerto Madero ($441/square foot), including Palermo ($278/square foot).

The only “approaching” going on in the Buenos Aires real estate market would be Puerto Madero condo prices moving south from their 2009 peak of roughly $464/square foot ($5,000/m2), a trend we have followed for the past 18 months. And the $278/square foot number for Palermo is a blended average. As the article reluctantly reveals, the great thing about Palermo is the wide range of properties and prices within Palermo proper including Villa Crespo ($250/SF), Las Cañitas ($272/SF) and Palermo Soho ($317/SF).

And if you really think $278/SF is expensive, spend a long weekend looking at property in Ipanema or the Jardim Paulista. Or save the trip to Brazil and just take the word straight from Florianopolis or even UBS. Bottom line, you can’t look at Palermo real estate without mixing in some context, and you can’t blame more porteños and foreigners for wanting to live there. (Full Story in Spanish)

For more information about Buenos Aires real estate opportunities, download the new issue of InvestBA Privada.

Palermo Soho New Construction

Stars indicate the 59 new residential buildings in Palermo Soho (Click Image to Enlarge)

The Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo Soho is witnessing a healthy wave of new residential construction activity, according to Clarin’s Romina Smith. The barrio bounded by Santa Fe, Cordoba, Scalabrini Ortiz and Godoy Cruz has seen a 70% rise in new construction compared to 2010.

“The boom is supported by the tremendous commercial activity in the barrio which is reflected in the prices,” notes Smith adding the price per SF for new construction has climbed above US$230 and reaches the low-to-mid $300′s in some of the new mid-rise buildings in Palermo Soho. While relatively high by BA standards, such prices are less than half of comparable properties in the trendiest bairros of Rio and Sao Paulo.

While Palermo ranked #1 in the BA construction activity heat map analysis in August, Soho is generating much of that heat. According to Reporte Inmobiliario, the 1.69 million SF of new construction in Palermo Soho is a 71% increase over the 989,000 SF detected this time last year. That square footage is spread across 59 new buildings plotted in the map above.

Two interesting trends are worth noting in terms of the new construction pattern: 1.) a cluster of mid-rise activity in the 18 blocks between Charcas and Guatemala and 2.) considerable new development along the barrio’s boundaries including Godoy Cruz to the north and Scalabrini Ortiz to the south.

The first trend got a boost when the City of Buenos Aires opened the new pass to equally trendy and thriving Palermo Hollywood via Soler Street (orange line), while the new Science and Technology Center is helping revitalize the northern corridor (light blue) between Godoy Cruz and Juan B. Justo. (Full Story in Spanish)

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

Batman Comic in Buenos Aires

La Baticueva Portena: Bruce Wayne moves to BA, and Batman joins forces with El Gaucho.

“BA is the new Gotham.” We said it first in the Summer Issue of Privada when we profiled the ultra-sophisticated Algodon Mansion in Recoleta. To quote, InvestBA has long rejected the misnomer of BA as the Paris of South America. While architecture is certainly one similarity, the city’s pace, diversity, nightlife, grit and boundless creativity have always made New York a more logical comparison. How else can you explain the porteno propensity to christen BA barrios with names like Palermo SoHo and Queens?

And now we have additional ammunition for the BA/Gotham parallel, courtesy of DC Comics. “In the latest issue of Batman, The Caped Crusader moves from Gotham to Buenos Aires where he dances tango (as Bruce Wayne) and even joins forces with a local superhero, El Gaucho,” according to Ciudad1.com. ” As Batman moves through BA, the comic makes reference to a variety of Argentine people and places including La Boca, Borges, El Eternauta, Las Islas Malvinas, and even Quilmes.

In the final analysis, Ciudad1 says, “While a comic isn’t likely to boost the inflow of U.S. tourists to Argentina, this is a beautiful souvenir that lets us know the South also exists for the North Americans.” As for Batman’s current location in Capital Federal, Argentina Anime says he’s sleeping in La Boca. And billionaire Bruce Wayne? Try the Algodon Mansion.

BA Property Search: US$200,000 to $500,000



This week’s InvestBA Property Search shows a sample of 10 active residential listings in several Buenos Aires neighborhoods priced between US$200,000 and $500,000. Some of the properties are 80-110 years old, most are move-in ready and the majority offer good cash flow potential as PHs or boutique rentals in some of the City’s most desirable neighborhoods. The summary slide on page 5 plots the properties on a Google map and allows a side-by-side comparison based on listing price and square footage. To zoom in on the presentation, click the Fullscreen link above or the magnifying glass below the slides.

For more information, email home@investba.com or call 1.772.933.4663 (U.S.).

Rock Em Sock Em Robots

Stay in BA or follow the Path to Punta? Argentines and foreign buyers alike are asking the question.

More Argentines are crossing the river to invest in Uruguay real estate. While this headline from Mirador Nacional (MN) highlights the obvious, it also digs deeper with a cost per square foot comparison of Uruguay destinations with some of Buenos Aires’ most expensive neighborhoods.

But first, MN points to the oft-cited $1.5 billion in Uruguay closings over the past 18 months number and breaks it down by region: $700 million in Punta del Este, $120 million in Jose Ignacio & Garzon and $40 million in La Barra. And while an estimated 60% of Punta del Este buyers are from Argentina, the remaining 40% is a rich cultural mix from Brazil, Canada, Chile, the E.U. and increasingly the United States.

Financial, legal and political stability are three factors in Uruguay’s favor as are competitive real estate prices. The average new construction cost in Punta del Este is $288/SF which compares favorably with $250/SF in Las Canitas$278/SF in Palermo Soho, $325/SF in Recoleta and $342/SF in Puerto Madero, according to Reporte Inmobiliario.

Recent sales in Punta del Este include a 2/2 apartment in La Mansa for $341,000, a 3/2 in La Brava for $286,000 and a furnished 2/2 on Roosevelt Avenue for $245,000. Still, the comments section of the article reveals Punta del Este isn’t for everyone. “Why invest in a place that is only active one month each year?,” writes Lucia, and Carolina opines,“It’s too small and stressful in summertime.” For these ladies, emerging destinos uruguayos like Punta Colorada, San Francisco or Playa Verde might be a better fit. (Full article in Spanish)

For more news and information on local real estate markets, search our archives and download the new edition of InvestBA Privada.

 

Bariloche

Mendoza

Uruguay

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