Natalia Muscatelli
12/25/2020 8:00
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 12/25/2020 8:00 AM
As it happened in different sectors, the pandemic shook all the forecasts that the real estate market had.
Buy-and-sell operations, which already had a retraction in the last two years,
were practically paralyzed between April and July
.
Then, through protocols, part of the transactions began to be resumed.
However, 2020 will be remembered for certain characteristics that distinguished the activity:
1. Fall in buying and selling
In the City of Buenos Aires, 13,187 deeds were worked so far this year, 52% less than in 2019, a year in which the sector was already accumulating downward numbers, according to the latest data from the Buenos Aires Notaries Association.
2. Honesty of prices in dollars
As a consequence of the dollar surge and the widening of the exchange rate gap, property prices suffered a
significant drop in dollars.
According to Miguel Di Maggio, director of the real estate Depa, “many owners and developers understood that they have to make an effort to
lower
the value of their property by
up to 20%
, in some cases, as a result of the devaluation of more than 100% of the value of the property. dollar, that encourages 2021 to be a better year with more operations, "he said.
Sebastian Sosa, president of Remax, believes that the growth expectations truncated by the pandemic, "helped the honesty and drop in prices of properties that had
been overvalued since 2018.
This means that 2020 did not end up being a year as bad as it seemed ", commented this week during a presentation of the chain.
3.
The segment used, the most affected
“The hardest hit this year were used real estate," says
Martín Funes, founding partner of Meta Desarrollos
. "Mainly because operations are carried out in dollar bills and generally in cash.
Most people choose to keep their equity liquid in dollars rather than pour it into used property.
The result of this scenario can be seen in the low volume of transactions this year. "
According to a report by the Real Estate Report, the dollar values of the used apartments of two and three rooms showed a drop of 16.7% in their inter-annual comparison.
Options to buy from the well
Operations with advance in dollars and balance in pesos and in installments
Swipe to explore
4. "Agreed" prices according to neighborhoods
A characteristic that was seen in recent months was a greater negotiation of prices or "counter offers", which according to real estate companies range from 10 to 15%.
Thus, according to information from Remax, the "agreed" prices for the sale of a two-room apartment average US $ 1,886 in Almagro;
US $ 1,496 in Balvanera;
US $ 1,941 in Barracas and US $ 2,793 in Belgrano, among the most emblematic neighborhoods of the Federal Capital.
5. The change in the rental law
After the regulation of the new rental law, which introduced important changes in the locations starting in July,
the market reacted with a strong increase
in rental prices to the retraction of the supply.
It happens that many owners took their properties out of the rent for fear of closing longer contracts (now for three years) and with more advantages for the tenants.
Rent hikes averaged 57% during the year
, nearly 25 percentage points above expected inflation.
6. Profitability, through the floor
Even with the rise in rental prices, putting a property on the rental market is still not a good deal: from a 5.47% annual gross rental return in November 2017 (that is, a term of 18 years and 4 months of recovery of the investment) the income went to
2.23%
, today.
This implies that an owner requires 44 years and 11 months to recover the investment: two and a half times more than three years ago, according to ZonaProp.
The ventures from the well, in pesos, remain as interesting real estate products.
7. Opportunities
According to the developers, among the best opportunities on the market today are
ventures from the well
that usually require an advance in dollars and quotas in pesos.
Also the acquisition of
lots,
since - with the low costs of construction that are at their historical minimum in dollars - the buyer can capitalize with the construction of a home.
And finally, the purchase of real estate in cash, in which good price reductions can be achieved.
8. Green and more square meters
Real estate companies say the trend will continue for projects in
neighborhoods outside the city of Buenos Aires
.
According to Reporte Inmobiliario, the map of values began to change: "Areas that had little presence and were relegated in searches until now. Streets and less dense sectors of neighborhoods such as Boedo, Parque Chacabuco, Parque Patricios, Paternal, Floresta, Saavedra and areas less consolidated neighborhoods such as Flores and Almagro, among others, are presented as an option to exchange for more covered meters, for terraces and for patios ".
The "location" alone, begins to lose the almost absolute tyranny in the value of the residential segment assigned so far within the city, "he warned.
9. Sales times according to the product
In 2020, in the City of Buenos Aires, the type of property that was sold in fewer days were apartments, which also had a lower negotiation margin compared to the value of the publication, according to Remax's experience.
"The properties that took the longest to sell were the land, and as a consequence they also had a greater negotiation margin."
10. Projections for 2021
According
Remax, expectations are positive, a slow growth in the real estate market is expected, although not a recovery in prices, which will probably tend to fall a little more, waiting for an improvement in the economy.
In this sense, 2021 is not going to be an easy year, but the expectations are good: a gradual process of reactivation of the market can begin and it could be a good year in terms of number of operations, they pointed out in that firm.
Other businessmen think that, with some more affluent economic and social variables, a rebound in sales and a new rise in prices could ensue.
And, more than one insists on the need for people to be able to count on
sources of financing
to access the purchase of their home.
NE
Look also
In the year of the law, rents accumulate a rise of 57% and exceed inflation by 25 points
Properties in Capital: real estate sales fall for 29 consecutive month
