Listed here are details of the ongoing costs of owning an apartment in Buenos Aires, to consider and plan for, especially if you do not choose to live in the apartment permanently.
Monthly Expenses
Each month apartment owners must pay a share of the building management cost, rather like a “condo fee” in the USA. As required by law here, every building in Buenos Aires must have an association of owners and an administrator, and as such all owners pay each month a sum in pesos to cover the expenses of the buildings’ maintenance, security, repairs, administration and in some cases, a contribution to a fund for future improvements. Such sums vary depending on the size of the apartment, and the value and importance of the building of course will affect the costs. As a rule of thumb a US$100,000 apartment will probably incur monthly expenses of around dollars US$200 or pesos $600 per month.
Some Argentines, fortunately only a few, are known to not pay the monthly expenses, which can attract legal action (albeit somewhat slow) and in extreme cases result in a forced sale of their apartment to cover the unpaid expenses (it’s sure this wont happen before 3 years have passed).
Few building’s administrators have a large slush fund in the kitty ready to pay for improvements when residents deem it to be desirable. Often emergencies that require repairs of broken pipes or elevators or the like, produce temporary spikes in the monthly sums payable to cover these unforeseen costs, but these are not excessively high - as most Argentines complain bitterly when ever there are hikes in the expenses.
Administrators too can be known to be on the corrupt side, and so as part of the important service in the purchase process that we offer is a verification of the reliability and correctness of the accounts of the building and the reputation of the Administrator.
Utilities : GAS PHONE ELECTRICITY WATER MUNICIPALITY
Listed below are the typical costs of utilities (phone, electricity, gas) for properties in Buenos Aires.
Paying utility bills can too be a time consuming and complicated process. Whilst, as a non resident foreigner, it is difficult to obtain a bank account here to pay bills, some (but not all) utility suppliers offer the ability to pay bills by using a foreign credit or debit card. Non-payment will result in regrettable event that the telephone, gas or electricity supply is cut off. It is a strange fact is that here, whilst most things here are slow in coming, utility suppliers issue very few if any warnings statements at all, and are super quick to cut off the supply for non-payment, and charge large sums for reconnection.
Telephone
There are at present two main providers of fixed lines in Buenos Aires, Telecom and Telefonica and they divide the city between them depending on geographic region. Both provide questionable service at best. There’s little option to select another phone provider, although there are providers of long distance services and high speed internet services (many linked with Cable TV providers). Rates vary obviously depending on actual phone usage, but Argentina is still relatively inexpensive. Average monthly costs for the provision of a fixed phone line are around dollars US$30 per month. High Speed Internet (banda ancha) costs about US$40-50 per month.
Electricity
There are two main providers, Edesur and Edenor that also divide and share most of the city of Buenos Aires. Rates for electricity are at present fairly low in Argentina. A typical apartment of 70 square metres occupied by 3 people using most known appliances and living as one would normally in summer generate electric bills of around dollars US$20 per month, in winter US$30.
Gas
Most apartment buildings in Argentina have mainline gas supply, and each apartment benefits from Gas for cooking, heating and hot water. In some cases, some buildings have central hot water and heating systems, in other cases the owner has his own appliances in the apartment servicing water and heating. Again a typical apartment of 70 square metres occupied by 3 people using most known gas appliances and living as one would normally in summer generate gas bills of around dollars US$20 per month, in winter US$30-50.
ABL (Municipal Government)
This bi-monthly expense is the equivalent of municipal council rates, and covers the cost of the provision of service of street lighting, street cleaning and garbage removal by the municipal council. Based on council rated value of the property (which to date is still low compared with the real value of the property on the market despite a significant hike in 2008 – usually about 40% of such), ABL expense is payable each two months and on a property worth about US$100,000 costs approximately US$50-70 per month.
Costs of Ownership
Costs of Ownership
