Finding somewhere to live in Buenos Aires

What the repeal actually changed

DNU 70/2023 repealed Ley 27.551, the Ley de Alquileres, and residential leases fell back on the general Código Civil y Comercial and on freedom of contract. There is no statutory minimum term any more, no cap on the deposit, no prescribed index and no rule requiring pesos. Rent may be fixed in a foreign currency, and the tenant cannot then require the landlord to accept payment in anything else, which is why dollar leases are ordinary here. Read the contract as the commercial agreement it now is, because very little is supplied by statute behind it.

• Term: whatever the parties agree, up to 20 years for a dwelling. If the contract is silent and the property is a permanent home, the law deems it two years.
• Payment intervals: whatever the contract says. Only where it is silent does article 1208 of the Código Civil y Comercial default to payment in advance, by monthly period, for a property.
• Deposit: the amount, the currency and the manner of its return are all freely agreed. There is no cap and no deposit protection scheme.
• Indexation: no index is prescribed, so the contract's own adjustment clause is the whole of the rule.

The commission you are not supposed to pay

Ley 5859/2017 provides that a tenant in the City of Buenos Aires pays no estate agency commission, no fee and no cost of obtaining credit or property reports. The commission chargeable to the owner is capped at 4.15% of the total contract value, and agencies are required to display this publicly. Breaches are reported to the Instituto de Vivienda de la Ciudad through the city's Tramitación a Distancia platform, using a miBA account. You need your own identity and contact details, the agency's details, and documentary or witness evidence, as a file or a link.

• Queries to the IVC go to consultas.ivc@buenosaires.gob.ar; the institute is at Av. Piedra Buena 3280.
• The city's Alquilar+Fácil programme lends tenants up to three months' rent for the initial costs — the deposit, the guarantee, the first month and the move. That is the city government's own arithmetic for what is due before keys, and it contains no agency fee.
• The loan carries no interest, runs over 12, 24 or 36 months and is capped at 1,962 UVAs, but it needs an Argentine DNI or permanent residence, so a newcomer budgets those three months in cash.

The guarantee, which is the slow part

The traditional requirement is a garantía propietaria, a property owner in the city who stands behind you, and a newcomer will not have one. The usual substitute is a seguro de caución, issued by insurers supervised by the Superintendencia de Seguros de la Nación, who run a credit and solvency check on the tenant before issuing the policy. Landlords increasingly accept it because it is enforced against the insurer in months rather than the years a garantía propietaria takes through the courts. The city subsidises 70% of the premium through Garantía+Fácil, but that programme requires an Argentine DNI, so plan to pay the full premium in your first year.

• Garantía+Fácil also requires the applicant to be 18 or over, with household income no higher than 7 Salarios Mínimos Vitales y Móviles, no adverse credit record, absence from the maintenance-debtors register, a CABA property used as a dwelling, and rent no higher than 654 UVAs.
• Ask for the current SMVM before testing yourself against that income cap, and take the current UVA value from the BCRA.

Expensas, repairs and getting out early

Article 1209 of the Código Civil y Comercial still reads that the tenant does not pay the charges levied on the property itself or the extraordinary expensas, and bears only those arising from habitual services; but that wording came from Ley 27.551, which DNU 70/2023 abrogated, and the IVC's own guidance now says the split is whatever the parties agree. Treat the customary division — ordinary expensas to the tenant, major works and property taxes to the owner — as the thing to negotiate into the contract rather than something the statute will supply. Ask for the last three months' statements and check what the building is actually billing under each heading. The tenant may also terminate at any time without giving a reason, by paying the landlord 10% of the rent for the time remaining between the notice and the contractual end date, which is the exit route from a dollar contract that turns out to be unaffordable.

• Urgent repairs: if the landlord stays silent or refuses, you may do the work after 24 consecutive hours from notification and charge it to them.
• Non-urgent repairs: demand action formally, wait 10 consecutive days, then do the same.
• Before starting eviction for non-payment the landlord must formally demand payment, giving at least 10 days and naming the place of payment, served at the address you gave in the contract. Service there is valid even if you refuse to accept it, so give an address you will monitor.

Where to look, and which official guidance to ignore

Zonaprop and Argenprop are the two portals agencies feed first, with Mercado Libre Inmuebles and Properati behind them; several of them block automated access, so search from a normal browser rather than a tool. The IVC publishes a model lease and a rent-increase calculator, runs free legal advice and mediation through the comunas, and will certify a tenant's and a guarantor's signatures on a residential lease free of charge. Certification is optional and an uncertified contract is still valid. One warning: the IVC's Guía para Inquilinos y Propietarios is split by the date the contract was signed, so open the DNU 70/2023 branch, which covers everything signed from 29 December 2023, and ignore the Ley 27.551 and Ley 27.737 branches beside it.

• Free signature certification: by appointment at certificacionesdefirmas@buenosaires.gob.ar, for a CABA property used solely as a dwelling, where the first month's rent does not exceed 654 UVAs. It covers the tenants', occupants' and guarantors' signatures, not the owner's.
• Bring the contract unsigned, and make sure the date in its heading is the day of the certification.

In order

1. 1Settle the currency question before you view anything: a dollar rent, or pesos with an adjustment clause you have read and understood.
2. 2Get a seguro de caución quote early, and ask the insurer what it wants from an applicant without a DNI.
3. 3Search Zonaprop and Argenprop in a browser, with Mercado Libre Inmuebles and Properati behind them.
4. 4Refuse any commission, fee or report cost an agency tries to charge you, and report it to the IVC through TAD if they persist.
5. 5Ask for the last three months' expensas statements, and separate the ordinary charges from the extraordinary.
6. 6Read the term, the adjustment clause and the deposit terms as the whole of the deal, because no statute fills the gaps.
7. 7Give an address you will actually monitor, since formal notices are validly served there.
8. 8Budget roughly three months' rent before keys: deposit, first month and guarantee.
9. 9Book free IVC certification if you qualify, bringing the contract unsigned and dated the day of the appointment.
10. 10Photograph the flat and sign an inventory on the day you take the keys; there is no deposit scheme to appeal to.