Real estate market and access to formal housing in the City of Buenos Aires and its metropolitan context, between 2003 and 2013

Abstract

The sustained economic and social inclusion growth along with the noticeable expansion of social and private housing supply over the last decade have not been accompanied by an improvement in the access to land and housing in the cities of Argentina. On the contrary, the housing problem and the access to well-located formal land, with good facilities and environmentally safe conditions have worsened like never before. The Metropolitan Region of Buenos Aires (rmba, for its acronym in Spanish) is one of the cities in the country where this paradox is most manifest. In this article conceptual and empirical bases are developed in order to understand the contradiction. The functioning of land markets and the real estate development in the RMBA will be analyzed, considering the period 2003-2013 in relation to the macroeconomic context, the monetary effort for the acquisition and rent of a formal dwelling and certain logics of urban development.