An Expat’s Insider Guide to Apartment Rentals in Buenos Aires

Are you planning to move to Buenos Aires for a couple of months? Or maybe even longer?

And do you feel lost on how to find long-term apartment rentals in Buenos Aires?

Then this post is for you!

Compared to many more popular big cities such as New York, London, and Paris (you name it), finding a rental apartment in Buenos Aires might not be as hard.

But apartment hunting in Buenos Aires can still be quite a challenging exercise when you just move to Argentina’s capital!

There are quite a few things you need to know before you start your apartment hunt in Buenos Aires!

I lived in Buenos Aires for over seven years until I moved back to Europe in 2023 with my Argentine husband and dog.

Over the years in Buenos Aires, I moved apartments several times. And let’s be honest, I have faced a bit of everything in Buenos Aires’ rental market!

I have tried renting a room in somebody’s house, renting an apartment with an illegal contract, and finally getting a long-term 3-year rental contract.

In this post, I want to share what I have learned over the years of valuable insights into apartment rentals in Buenos Aires!

An Expat’s Complete Guide to Apartment Rentals in Buenos Aires

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Apartment Rentals in Buenos Aires

In Buenos Aires, there are two official ways of apartment rental:

• Short-term rental (alquiler temporal) – the easier (more expensive) 3 months rental contracts
• Long-term rental (alquiler con contrato de 3 años) – the more difficult (cheaper) 3-year long-term rental contract.

Keep on reading to learn more about alquiler temporal, contrato de 3 años, honorarios de inmobiliaria, garantia de propiedad, and much more!

Short-term rentals

Temporary rentals or short-term rentals in Buenos Aires are the easiest option for rentals in Buenos Aires for foreigners.

In Argentina, short-term rental is referred to as alquiler temporal or alquiler temporario turístico in Spanish.

A short-term rental in Buenos Aires is the apartment renting type with fewer requirements, making it the most manageable option for expats and international students in Buenos Aires.

The contracts on short-term temporary rentals in Buenos Aires are also the most expensive option for apartment rental in Buenos Aires.

Temporary rentals are normally fully-furnished or partly-furnished apartments.

The local regulations in Buenos Aires only allow a temporary rental contract to be for one period of up to 3 months.

However, many landlords of short-term rentals in Buenos Aires are open to renewing a short-term rental contract if you wish to stay longer than the 3 months. It is a good idea to ask the landlord or real estate office when you move in if there is a possibility for an extension.

With the ongoing economic crisis in Argentina, locals and foreigners who have invested in property and rent it out their apartments as short-term rentals might ask you to pay the rent in USD – and most likely in cash.

If you have the possibility to pay in USD, it might save you some headaches trying to figure out the impact of Argentine exchange rates on your rent. For short stays of a couple of months, I would honestly not spend time fighting with a landlord about this.

However, if you are planning to stay longer than a couple of months, it might be worth a bit of negotiation with the landlord about which currency to pay your rent in.

By paying your rent in Argentine pesos, you can benefit from any devaluations the Argentine peso might suffer during the time you are staying in Buenos Aires. This means that if the Argentine peso suffers a devaluation during your stay, you will need less of your foreign currency to pay your rent in Buenos Aires.

But again, many Argentine landlords are very familiar with the logic of the Argentine economy. For them a rent paid in Argentine pesos during a devaluation will mean the opposite as for you; they will be able to get less foreign currency (typically USD) for the pesos you pay them in rent.

Therefore, most landlords of short-term rentals in Buenos Aires will strongly argue for you to pay in USD, so they are protected against the devaluations of the Argentine peso.

So, it is recommendable to try and find apartment rentals paid in pesos whenever possible since it will become cheaper for you in the long run. But sometimes it is just not possible, and you have to choose your fights, right?

Requirements for Temporary Short-Term Rentals in Buenos Aires

The requirements for short-term rental in Buenos Aires might change depending on the landlord or the real estate office renting the apartment. However, we can look at the more standard requirements for temporary rentals in Buenos Aires.

The standard requirements for temporary short-term rentals in Buenos Aires are:

• One month’s rent
• One month’s rent as a deposit (to be returned to you when you move out)
• A photocopy of your passport (or Argentine ID card, DNI, if you have one)
• Fees of the real estate office (honorarios de inmobiliaria) if you rent through a real estate broker
• The owner might also ask to see proof of ongoing studies and/or proof of income.

Airbnb for Short-term Rental in Buenos Aires

Airbnb is another option if you are only planning to stay a couple of months in Buenos Aires.

I have heard many stories of foreigners who rented an apartment in Buenos Aires on Airbnb for a couple of days. When they arrived, they asked the owner if they were interested in renting the apartment for a longer term outside Airbnb.

One thing you should keep in mind is that this way of extending your stay in an Airbnb apartment tends to be done through illegal rental contracts (or no contract at all).

And it does put you at risk if you end up with a bad landlord where you have no rights whatsoever. Read more about illegal rentals below.

Long-term Rental Contract

The standard long-term rentals in Buenos Aires that most locals rent are apartments with rental contracts of 3 years.

Buenos Aires long-term rentals are referred to as alquiler con contrato a 3 años (rental with a 3-year contract) or simply alquiler (rental) in Spanish.

On most real estate websites and renting portals in Argentina, you will mostly see these standard long-term rentals referred to as just alquiler

As the name indicates these long-term rentals are for a standard duration of 3 years, and they tend to be cheaper than short-term rentals in Buenos Aires. However, long-term rentals have a lot more requirements than short-term rental contracts!

Requirements for Standard Long-term Rental in Buenos Aires

The specific requirements for the standard long-term rentals in Buenos Aires might change slightly depending on the landlord and real estate office managing the rental.

However, here are the standard requirements for long-term rentals in Buenos Aires:

• One month’s rent
• One month’s rent as a deposit (to be returned to you when you move out)
• Fees of the real estate office (called honorarios de inmobiliaria) if you rent through an office
• Proof of income
• A property guarantee (garantia de propiedad) or a surety insurance (seguro de caución)

The first three points are relatively straight toward and similar to the requirements for the short-term rentals.

The difficult part comes in the last two bullet points: Proof of income and property guarantee or surety insurance.

Let’s break down the meaning of them!

Proof of income

Many landlords and real estate offices want to make sure you can pay your rent, and therefore ask for proof of income.

The tricky part comes now: most real estate offices only accept locally registered earnings and income for the standard long-term rentals in Buenos Aires!

Meaning that they normally only accept payslips from companies legally registered and based in Argentina!

This creates a bit of an issue for foreigners earning their money abroad!

So, if you work in Argentina as a freelancer or a contractor for an international company (which let’s face it is one of the best options for foreigners in Argentina!), most likely the real estate office will not take your income as valid proof of income.

It has been a couple of years since we rented an apartment in Buenos Aires, so the real estate offices might have become more flexible around this.

My recommendation would be to ask the real estate office or landlord upfront when you have the first contact with them about an apartment you might be interested in renting.

This way you make sure you are on the same page and don’t spend time on an apartment where you can’t reach an agreement on the documentation.

Property guarantee (garantía de propiedad)

The next tricky thing in the Buenos Aires rental market for foreigners is the property guarantee!

The property guarantee, also called garantía de propiedad in Spanish, is proof that somebody puts their property in guarantee for your rental.

The property guarantee is set in place, in case you mistreat or vandalize the apartment or house you are renting.

Argentines tend to get a close relative that owns a property to put down the property guarantee for them when renting an apartment.

The property guarantee is, of course, extremely difficult for us foreigners to get!

And to make it a lot more tricky for foreigners to rent in Buenos Aires, within the City of Buenos Aires, many real estate offices only accept a property guarantee from within the city itself…

… However, in case you can’t present a property guarantee, there is an alternative to ensuring a long-term rental in Buenos Aires as a foreigner: surety insurance or a seguro de caución!

Surety insurance (seguro de caución)

The surety insurance, also known as seguro de caución in Spanish, is insurance the renter pays to protect the property and landlord against you not complying with the rental contract.

The surety insurance is a guarantee to the landlord that in case you break any part of the rental contract such as not paying your rent or the building expenses, the surety insurance will cover the expenses for the landlord.

In Argentina, the surety insurance is between one to two months of additional rent.

In case you stop paying your rent, the landlord will notify the insurance company and they will cover the unpaid rent. Afterward, the insurance company will charge you the rent plus a lot of administrative fees.

The surety insurances are strictly regulated in Argentina, and it is only special insurance companies that are allowed to offer this kind of surety insurance for long-term rentals.

More and more landlords and real estate offices in Buenos Aires are accepting surety insurance.

While it is an expensive extra charge for being able to get a standard long-term rental in Buenos Aires, at least, there exists an alternative for foreigners not having or knowing somebody with a property to put as a guarantee.

Learn more about seguros de caución (link in Spanish).

Illegal Apartment Rentals in Buenos Aires

Now we have talked a lot about the two standard legal ways of renting an apartment in Buenos Aires, but Buenos Aires also has a huge illegal rental market!

Actually, illegal apartment rentals are a lot more common in Buenos Aires than you might think!

But how do you know if your long-term rental contract in Buenos Aires is legal or illegal?

My personal rule of thumb for spotting illegal rentals in Buenos Aires is:

• Legal: If the rental contract falls under one of the two types of rental contract we talked about above (3-month temporary contracts or 3-year standard contracts), it is most likely good to go.

• Illegal: If the rental contract doesn’t fall under the standard of 3-month or 3-year rental contracts, it is most likely not so good to go.

An illegal rental contract in Buenos Aires basically means that your rental contract is not legally binding. If you run into problems with your landlord, the legal system in Argentina will not help you resolve any dispute.

That being said, this doesn’t mean that all illegal rentals in Buenos Aires are scams!

Since there are so many requirements for renting an apartment that many locals can’t meet either, there is a huge black market for apartment rentals in Buenos Aires.

I have lived in rooms and apartments where the contract was not legally binding because it was for, for example, one year. Since I didn’t have any major issues with the landlord, it wasn’t an issue.

In these cases, the rental itself wasn’t a scram. I had a roof over my head and the agreements with the landlord were kept. It was simply “just” the rental contract that wasn’t legally binding.

BUT! There are also many rental scams in Buenos Aires!

When you start to look for an apartment in Buenos Aires, you need to really keep an eye out for any scams.

Luckily, I never fell into a rental scram in Buenos Aires (or anywhere, actually). Read more about how to avoid common scams for rentals in Buenos Aires.

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How to Find an Apartment in Buenos Aires

In this section, I wanted to share my best tips on how to find an apartment in Buenos Aires, including the best neighborhoods for expats and online resources for apartment hunting!

Let’s get into it!

The Best Buenos Aires Neighborhoods for Expats

The most popular neighborhoods among expats and other internationals in Buenos Aires are:

• Palermo – The largest and most popular neighborhood in Buenos Aires with a trendy modern vibe to it. Palermo consists of many smaller sub-neighborhoods with their own charm and character. Palermo is generally considered one of the safest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires.
• Recoleta – Buenos Aires’ old money neighborhood with beautiful old apartment buildings and big avenues. Recoleta is located just north of downtown Buenos Aires and is another popular area for expats to live.
• Belgrano – A perfect neighborhood if you are looking for an apartment in a well-connected neighborhood with more quiet streets. Belgrano features beautiful tree-lined avenues with tall apartment buildings alongside cafes and restaurants.
• Puerto Madero – Buenos Aires’ high-end expensive neighborhood with many buildings and skyscrapers. Puerto Madero is super centrally located and close to downtown Buenos Aires.
• Almagro – A perfect neighborhood for a more local feeling while you’re still close to both downtown (microcentro) and Palermo. Some locals will tell you to stay away from Almagro, but I lived there for a year. While you keep your eyes open and watch which parts of Almagro you go alone and at what time, you should be fine.
• Villa Crespo – Considered Palermo’s little bother, Villa Crespo is becoming more and more trendy with new apartment buildings and cute cafes. Villa Crespo is located north of Palermo.
• Villa Urquiza – A great local residential area (I’m a bit biased because I lived here the longest) in the Northwestern part of Buenos Aires. Villa Urquiza offers plenty of parks and green areas and fewer cars on the streets.
• Coghlan – A quiet neighborhood located a bit further from the city center than Villa Urquiza and a bit worse connected with public transportation. Coghlan is a great area for families with kids.
• Nuñez – A more local residential area of Buenos Aires perfect for families with kids looking for bigger apartments or houses. Nuñez is located in the Northern part of Buenos Aires close to the river banks of Río de la Plata.

Some would argue that San Telmo also should be on the list of neighborhoods for expats. But I would honestly stay away from living there and just go and visit whenever you need a bit of old-town charm.

Each neighborhood in Buenos Aires is very different. The neighborhoods I have mentioned above are all relatively safe to live in.

However, not all neighborhoods in Buenos Aires are equally safe, and some areas suffer serious issues with crime – and being a foreigner will properly not make you safer!

Even though it is mostly meant as a joke, Hood Maps for Buenos Aires can help you get a bit of an idea about the vibe in the different neighborhoods in Buenos Aires.

Where to Look for Rentals in Buenos Aires?

Most apartment rentals in Buenos Aires are posted online on renting platforms or Facebook groups.

Your best chances of getting an apartment in Buenos Aires is to be monitoring websites and Facebook groups several times a day and be among the first to contact a landlord or real estate offices about there posting.

Below I have gathered some of the online resources, I used to use when living in Buenos Aires for finding an apartment. Hopefully, they will be of use to you too!

Websites

There are many different websites to look for apartment rentals in Buenos Aires.

But here are some of the most popular websites to look for an apartment in Buenos Aires:

• ZonaProps
• ArgenProps
• Inmuebles Clarin
• Mercado Libre

These websites are mostly for standard 3-year contracts, which will be listed on alquilers.

Some of the sites also have the option to search for short-term rentals, look for temporario or temporal.

Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are another resource for finding apartments in Buenos Aires.

In the Facebook groups for apartment rentals in Buenos Aires, you will see many people referring to the term dueño directo, best translated as “directly with the owner”.

Dueño directo means that you rent an apartment (or a house) directly with the owner or landlord without the involvement of a real estate office.

With dueño directo both the landlord and yourself as the rentor avoid paying the many fees that real estate offices charge for making the connection between the two parties.

You should be extra careful and watch out for scams and illegal rentals in Facebook groups since there is way less control over who can post here.

Apartment Rental Facebook Groups for English-speak Expats in Buenos Aires

Here are some of the Facebook groups for long-term rentals for English-speaking expats that I have followed over the years in Buenos Aires:

• Buenos Aires – Real estate

• Buenos Aires Classifieds

Facebook Groups for Rentals in Buenos Aires in Spanish:

Here are some of the Facebook groups for long-term rentals where posts are primarily in Spanish:

• Alquileres Temporarios en Buenos Aires

• ALQUILERES TEMPORARIOS BUENOS AIRES

• Alquiler de habitaciónes / rooms for rent- Buenos Aires Capital Federal

• DUEÑOS DIRECTOS VENDEN Y ALQUILAN

• ALQUILERES EN CAPITAL FEDERAL

• ALQUILERES TEMPORARIOS CAPITAL FEDERAL

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Final Thoughts: Is It Hard to Find An Apartment in Buenos Aires As A Foreigner?

You need a good amount of patience and being on time for the websites and Facebook groups to find an apartment in Buenos Aires.

Depending on the time of the year you are looking for an apartment, there might be more or less demand on the rental market in Buenos Aires.

That being said, I have personally never felt that the fact that I was a foreigner in Buenos Aires has blocked me from getting an apartment.

Of course, I do speak Spanish which might have helped in my experience with rentals in Buenos Aires.

What is your experience with trying to find apartment rentals in Buenos Aires? I would love to hear your experience in the comments below!