Natalia Muscatelli
07/06/2020 - 12:07
- Clarín.com
- Economy
- Economy
Between the recession and the pandemic, the possibility of accessing one's own home became a much more utopian goal than in other times. Because in the last year, wages lost about 40% of the purchasing capacity of a new or used property in the Federal Capital, according to a report by the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE).
Despite the inactivity that the real estate market has been causing, property prices did not drop as sharply (at least in published prices) as wages did in terms of dollars, as a result of inflation. .
According to the UADE study, the real wage index in terms of square meters (ISRV) presented, in May, the lowest value since the index began to be made . It stood at 35.9 for new homes and 36.9 for used homes, when in January 2010 the base was 100. In year-on-year terms, the indicator shows a 40% reduction in purchasing power for new apartments and 42% for used ones.
According to the neighborhoods that this university study always monitors (Recoleta, Palermo, Belgrano and Nuñez), the simple average of the offer price of the m2 was US $ 3,697 for the new apartments and US $ 3,336 for the used ones . Thus, an average of 6.67 wages were needed to acquire a m2 of new housing and 5.87 to acquire a m2 of used housing in those neighborhoods.
In this survey, prices for the “brand new” segment were around US $ 2,731 (Balvanera) and US $ 3,913 (Belgrano). While for the used segment the values ranged from US $ 2,242 (Balvanera) to US $ 3,474 (Palermo).
In particular, the values of new apartments in Recoleta, Palermo, Belgrano and Núñez showed a variation of -2.4%, -0.2%, 2.1% and -2.8%, respectively, when comparing May 2020 with respect to May 2019. On the other hand, the units used registered the following inter-annual variations: Palermo (+ 3%), Belgrano (-0.3%), Recoleta (-2.1%) and Núñez (-0.8% ).
Access to housing, according to the UADE
When comparing the prices of the properties with those surveyed during the previous month, "it is observed that the average price of the apartments in those neighborhoods decreased by 1.1% the new ones and by 1.2% the used ones", according to the entity. In other words, in May, there was a further decrease in the purchasing power of wages. This drop was the result of a sharp reduction in the average wages in dollars of registered workers in the private sector (-40.6% year-on-year) andthe slight decrease in the prices of new units (-1.1% yoy).
The behavior of these variables implied that, during the month of May, the salary was able to buy only 15% of a new M2 in the northern area of the City of Buenos Aires, a proportion that is lower than that registered in the same month of 2019, when it reached 25%.
A similar situation was verified in the case of used homes, for which the indicator showed an interannual decrease of 42.5%. In this case, the salary allowed 17% of a m2 of housing to be purchased , a proportion lower than the 29.3% registered in May 2019.