in March the sale of real estate in the City fell almost 50%

The total number of deeds of sale of real estate in the city of Buenos Aires registered a drop of 49.1% in March from the level of a year earlier and the total amount of transactions fell more than 31%.

The deeds totaled 1,393 records, while the total amount of the transactions carried out decreased by 31.5%, with $ 8,928 million.

It is the twenty-second consecutive month with a drop in the interannual measurement, according to the figures of the College of Notaries of the City of Buenos Aires.

Compared to February 2020, merchantings also decreased 1.7% in quantity and 7.9% in pesos.

The average amount of the events was $ 6,409,655 ($ 98,307 according to the average official exchange rate): it grew 34.5% in one year in pesos, while in the US currency it fell 12.1%.

Bank mortgage deeds (131) decreased 33.5% in the year-on-year comparison, and represented only 9% of the total.

“It is a strong and predictable fall. The pandemic will break negative records. On the other hand, it must be considered that March stopped on the 20th, so the April numbers will be a crash as in many related sectors,” said Carlos Allende, president of the Buenos Aires College of Notaries.

What expectations does the market have?

In dialogue with iProfessional, Adrián Mercado, the CEO of the real estate company that bears his name, explained that “the social and obligatory isolation that is experienced in Argentina, affected a business that had already been hit. Let’s remember that before this pandemic, closing operations had become very difficult as a result of the restrictions on the buying and selling of the dollar and the emergence of the parallel dollar. “

“However, beyond that situation that existed until the first half of March, today the scenario is more worrying, because it not only affects real estate companies in the buying and selling segment, but also, we are complicated for the collection of rents, renewal of contracts and removals, many of them planned before quarantine and that have not yet been carried out, “he explained.

In the case of real estate companies, the Chamber and the College of Notaries drafted a protocol that proposes different safeguard measures for clients and company personnel.

Among them, it is contemplated to reduce to only four people empowered to work within the real estate agency, (a broker, a person to serve the public, an administrative and finally cleaning staff), in addition to emphasizing the hygiene aspects of both the premises as of those who enter it. The professional attention allowed in person is limited exclusively to those acts of the activity that require physical presence as an essential requirement.

“The real estate activity, in addition to the current effect of the pandemic, has been dragging more than 20 months of consecutive fall, so the support to be able to energize the sector, formed mainly by SMEs, will be vital,” he remarked.

Prices

The value of real estate across the country will drop in the coming months due to the coronavirus pandemic and the drop in demand that started last year, according to different specialists consulted.

“Sales were already very low, I think in that sense it will remain the same. They will be paralyzed for a while because the values ​​will continue to drop. Increasingly. Those who have dollars will speculate waiting for a lower price,” Damián Garbarini, director of DG Business and Network 777, commented to this medium.

Another trader, who opted for the off the record, also predicted numbers down in the quotes. “The demand was ironed before the whole health problem exploded. There is no reason to think that the opposite could happen when we are about to come out of a total paralysis of the economy. Those who have dollars in hand will be able to impose their conditions. And more than one vendor, in order to do something standing in the midst of the crisis, will accept a significant discount, “he said.

José Rozados, from Reporte Inmobiliario, also took it for granted that after the quarantine “there will be people in need of selling.” He argued that “a lot of SME entrepreneurs could enroll in this trend as a way to continue supporting an enterprise”, and that in that same direction there would be a person who “decides to dispose of lots in which he never built.”

“The price of the used one will go down although it is impossible to determine how much. The prices will largely be left to the counter-offer, which will set the pulse. The prices we knew before the quarantine do not exist any more. There will be a new level, as well as a new scenario The question is if the banks will provide financing for those who want to go for a property taking advantage of this change that is coming in values, “he said.

“From the second quarter of 2018, demand fell and at the beginning prices were maintained, then they began to drop gradually, between 5 and 10%; with the pandemic, what one can guess is that there will be flexibility of prices going down in the coming months, “Juan Pablo Baca, real estate consultant for Coldwell Banker Argentina Uruguay, told Télam.

Baca considered that “a market is coming where the price of publication will continue with a downward price but not abrupt, but there will be aggressive offers.”

“There will be no abrupt falls in the values ​​because the owners who can wait are going to do it; the next operations that are going to come are from a smaller group of urgent, and the investors taking advantage of this urgency are going to try to buy at a low value,” he explained. .

Likewise, Baca observed that in “the construction costs, those who have dollar bills will find the cost in historical floors, it is the great opportunity.”

For his part, Sebastián Cantero, from the real estate agency Sebastián Cantero SA, affirmed that the cost of construction decreased “due to which the value of the brand new units decreased, and the values ​​of the used ones should be obligatorily rearranged.”

“In times of crisis like these, those who have savings or the availability of dollars begin to win to face an offer and wait for it; the great difference between 2001 and today is that in 2001 90% of the people were indebted to the banks, with mortgages, and today that is not happening, “Telam explained.

“The value of the properties has to drop without a doubt, but in three years they will go up again, which is why brick is the best refuge,” he said.

Meanwhile, real estate adviser Daniel Zampone told Télam that “we were noticing a drop in the value of properties at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, after the pandemic we are going to see another drop in properties.”

“Last year they had dropped between 8 and 12%, after this pandemic we will see that added to that percentage, properties will drop more than 20%,” he estimated.

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