There’s a major world capital where the culture and quality of life rivals Paris or New York, but where prime real estate still trades at 1970s New York prices.
This city has a food and wine culture renowned around the globe. Its architecture fuses French, Italian, and Spanish influences—grand avenues, ornate façades, and leafy plazas that feel lifted straight from Europe. It’s home to one of the world’s most lavish opera houses and one of its most celebrated dance cultures.
This is a place of passion and energy… And yet in its most beautiful and desirable neighborhoods, you can get pre-construction two-bed condos from $167,000…and large resale five-bedroom apartments with private rooftop terraces for $275,000.
This city is Buenos Aires in Argentina.
And I’ve just gotten new boots-on-the-ground intelligence from it.
Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, is known for its wide boulevards, leafy parks, and striking architecture.
Argentina should be one of the richest nations on earth.
It has vast natural resources, great demographics, and one of the most beautiful capitals in the Americas. But decades of bad policymaking left it trapped in a cycle of crisis, with regular debt defaults and bouts of hyperinflation.
Today, though, something’s changing in Argentina. Inflation has fallen. The government’s posted a fiscal surplus. Property transactions in Buenos Aires are rising. The potential upside for investors is extraordinary—if the recovery holds.
That’s why I asked a member of my Real Estate Trend Alert (RETA) group to investigate…
Kim Iskyan is a veteran global investment analyst and writer who’s spent much of his career—and life—abroad, dissecting markets and opportunities in real time. He went to Buenos Aires to walk the neighborhoods, meet brokers and developers, and ask questions.He writes…
“Buenos Aires enchants as a cross between Miami and Paris—palm trees and beautiful people meet fabulous Art Deco buildings, scenic cobblestone streets, and sidewalk cafés galore. Wander the streets, and you’ll often smell beef grilling, from a restaurant or sidewalk setup, or from a city-dweller’s parilla. Many of the apartments I saw in Buenos Aires with an outdoor patio or terrace—even if it was large enough only for two people to stretch their arms without touching—had a grill…that’s how much Argentines love their meat,” says Kim.
“Part of the city’s charm lies in the whiplash-inducing zoning: A flash new apartment building with mirror windows sits next to an old-style two-story plano horizontal with a century-old façade, adjacent to a grubby fruit vendor storefront, with a ’50s masterpiece building featuring a doorman and film-noir elevator at the end of the block.
“You never know what’s coming…but no matter what, it will keep your attention.”
Buenos Aires is on the eastern coast of Argentina.
While he was in Buenos Aires, Kim focused his research on the two neighborhoods that are most likely to deliver income, capital appreciation, and lifestyle opportunity…
Palermo is made up of Palermo SoHo and Palermo Hollywood, each of which has a healthy dash of their Manhattan and Los Angeles, respectively, namesakes. Relaxed and chill, they are also where the pretty people go to be seen, get an empanada or a steak, or drink a craft beer.
Recoleta is like Buenos Aires’s Upper East Side—swanky shops and doorman buildings. This neighborhood exudes old-money elegance, with tree-lined streets and grand apartment buildings with French-style facades.
So how much does it cost to own in these neighborhoods? Here are a few properties Kim saw…
Located a few hundred feet off one of Recoleta’s nicest streets, he found a stunning 1,350-square-foot historic apartment with a large common area, and three bedrooms. Like many apartments of the era, it has maid’s quarters behind the kitchen—today mostly used for storage or as a small bedroom or office. Boosting the price to $400,000 in total are two underground parking spots, a rare commodity in this part of Buenos Aires (they’re rentable separate from the apartment).
Kim also went to see some plano horizontal…
A plano horizontal, or PH, is Buenos Aires’s most character-laden real estate. Picture this: A classic two-story building where the ground floor houses two or three modest apartments—while upstairs, accessed through a separate entrance, sits a spacious unit with private rooftop access. That’s a PH.
Kim viewed a five-bedroom PH with an expansive rooftop terrace in Palermo SoHo. It also has a small kitchen just off of the terrace, so that rooftop parilla prep doesn’t entail a trip downstairs. It’s listed at $275,000.
The interior glasswork and large rooftop terrace of the plano horizontal, or PH, Kim viewed in Buenos Aires.
Then there are preconstruction options…
For example…a 99-unit development, in the heart of Palermo, comprised mostly of studios, with a handful of one- and two-bedroom apartments. They range in price from around $3,000 to $3,400 per square meter ($279 to $316 per square foot) depending on floor—higher is more expensive—and other parameters. Studios cost $79,000 to $89,000, and two-bedroom apartments are $167,000 to $185,000.
As these opportunities show, it’s not difficult to find Buenos Aires apartments costing a fraction—say, 10% to 20%—of what you’d find in analogous New York or Paris neighborhoods. There are no three-bedroom doorman apartments on Fifth Avenue’s Upper East Side for $400,000.
But does that mean real estate in Argentina is a good deal?
The Rosedal Park in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires. This is one of the most desirables areas of Argentina’s capital. Yet real estate prices can be surprisingly affordable.
The thing about “cheap” is—it can stay that way for a long time…or even get cheaper.
That’s the risk in Argentina. The country is having a more positive period. Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has been able to reverse economic course relatively quickly by making some drastic policy changes. That said, the country’s politics and policies could easily slip back into their old habits. It’s happened before, and it could happen again.
But here’s the thing…
Even if that were to happen, the reality for property owners wouldn’t be so grim.
In the worst case, you’d simply ride out another bout of Argentina’s trademark turbulence—earning income from your real estate as you go. And when you’re not renting it out, you live in a city that rivals Paris, Rome, and Madrid…learn to tango…and soak up summer while folks in the Northern Hemisphere are huddled by the fire (Southern Hemisphere summers are seasons opposite the North American calendar).
Not such a bad “worst-case” scenario.
And the upside—well, that’s where it gets exciting.
Right now, Argentina’s moving from economic chaos toward something far more promising. Its evolution—from basket case to potential star performer—is exactly the kind of turning point that can build serious wealth.
That makes Buenos Aires a place worth knowing about.
Kim produced a full report on his scouting in Argentina, which I shared with RETA members yesterday. It includes listings to all the above.
Join RETA here to unlock access to this report and a wealth of other real estate research…
Wishing you good real estate investing,
P.S. Boots-on-the-ground scouting reports are far from the only benefit of RETA membership. The biggest advantage of being a RETA member is access to our exclusive, off-market deals.
And right now, we have an incredible upcoming RETA-only deal in San José del Cabo.
Set at the base of the Baja California peninsula, San José del Cabo is a place of spellbinding natural beauty and supreme luxury where cactus-studded hills roll down to glorious golden-sand beaches…where mountains soar over glistening blue waters teeming with incredible marine life…and where the ultra-rich come to stay in dazzling resorts that rival the finest on the planet…
With our deal, we’re about to get the chance to own stunning, ocean-view condos in a best-in-class, amenity-rich community. And our RETA-only pricing is a complete no-brainer.
I expect gains of over $186,000 three years after delivery and gross rental yields of 14% renting short term…and that’s leaving lots of time for personal use.
This is a classic RETA no-brainer deal…
The full briefing on this opportunity drops Saturday, October 25 at 1 p.m. ET.
But you need to be a RETA member to get access to this deal. Learn how you can join RETA here.
The glistening deserts-meets-the-ocean coastline of San José del Cabo. I’ve negotiated an exclusive deal here for RETA members—our first ever in San José—and it has the potential to be one of the most incredible in the history of our club. More on this soon…
