Due to the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine restrictions, just seven properties were sold in Buenos Aires City last month – a record low.
The low number of titles deeds exchanged represented a 99.7 percent drop in comparison with the same month last year, according to the local College of Notaries in the capital.
Most of this septet were bedsitters for a total transactional value of 20.7 million pesos, thus representing an even steeper fall of 99.8 percent.
In all cases the ban on the formal registration of property sales could only be dodged by claiming force majeure. None of the transactions involved a mortgage.
This April thus marked the 23rd month running of decline for the property market, when months are measured against the previous year's data, the College pointed out, although obviously the preceding falls were not so dramatic.
Comparisons with the previous month were also extreme – a 99.5 percent fall in volume and 99.8 percent in value when measured against March, 2020.
These seven sales averaged 2,925,571 pesos each or US$43,105 according to the average official exchange rate last month – 38.6 percent lower in peso terms and 61.6 percent in dollars when compared to the average transaction in April, 2019.
The first third of this year thus closed with a 54.6 percent slump in registered property sales and a 56.5 percent plunge in overall activities for notaries, figures fully reflecting the crisis in the real estate sector.
– TIMES/NA
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