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Caballito - Most sought-after neighborhood in the city that stars - La Nación
Mercedes Soriano
August 30, 2023
Pedro Goyena avenue stands out for its trees and its class buildings; a few blocks away, the houses of the English neighborhood rise
From classics to gourmet proposals, the gastronomic offer extends to the streets of Caballito
Between the southern zone and the northern zone of Caballito, there are almost 100 real estate projects underway
Comfortable measurements, ventilated and bright spaces, some of the most frequent requirements before buying a property
With the removal of several lanes from Honorio Pueyrredón avenue, a linear park was developed, named “green street”.
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The most sought-after neighborhood in the city that stars in an unexpected change of trend
Mercedes Soriano
August 30, 2023
Two hundred years ago, the weathervane in the shape of a horse from a grocery store marked the course for these streets and would end up defining the name of the neighborhood: the brass figure that looked down from above on the corner of Rivadavia avenue and Emilio Miter christened the area that today It is consecrated as one of the most desirable in the city of Buenos Aires, with its own characteristics and some curiosities.
Located in the geographic center of CABA, it prospers with new real estate developments and competes in demand with popular neighborhoods such as Palermo, Recoleta and Belgrano. “Today, Caballito is one of the main sources of growth in the real estate sector, it is one of the areas where there are the largest number of square meters under construction and additionally, it is one of the neighborhoods with the highest request rate”, says Kevin Savelski, director of the 8.66 group, which has four projects underway in the area.
Since 2019, the neighborhood has been positioned first in the Mercado Libre ranking, which measures which are the most sought-after neighborhoods to buy a property. Historically, demand has gone against the grain in this area. “Unlike other neighborhoods where the north is more expensive and more aspirational than the south, in Caballito the category works were concentrated in the south,from Rivadavia avenue to Directorio avenue”, describes Agustín Walger, director of Lepore Propiedades. Indeed, the southern zone is the one that agglomerates the most luxurious buildings in the neighborhood and the one that attracts high-profile consultations.
"It is the demand that steps on the tip of Flores and Parque Chacabuco with the Carabobo and Directorio avenues", says Gerardo Azcuy, founder of the developer that bears his last name, which has 60,000 square meters in execution in that corridor, of which this year 21,000 square meters will be delivered. In this area, an avenue easily identifiable by its intense trees and its elegant buildings stands out above the rest. "Pedro Goyena Avenue is like Libertador de Caballito Avenue",defines the developer.
The properties on this artery register the highest real estate values in the neighborhood. "The land on Goyena does not drop below US$1,000, while on another avenue it averages between US$600 and US$700 per square meter," says Azcuy, and clarifies that these costs are transferred to the final product: finished projects are around between US$3,500 and US$4,500 per square meter. By deviating just one block, the imposing mansions of the picturesque English neighborhood burst into view.
Pedro Goyena avenue stands out for its trees and its class buildings; a few blocks away, the houses of the English neighborhood rise
Goyena and its surroundings have flourished in recent years with a parade of locals that inaugurated a new Buenos Aires gastronomic center with the arrival of different proposals: pasta from Cucina Paradiso and Napule; Salve's Spanish food; the Nucha, Es Ruiz and Le Blé pastry shops; Próspero Velazco's bakery; Sushi from Fabric and Sushi Club; the “palermitano” menu of La Panera Rosa; the fashionable hamburgers of Burger Couple, and the cafeteria of Adorado, Arena, Café Martínez and Tostado. The circuit is completed by the Belgium brewery and some neighborhood classics such as Morelia and Almacén de Pizzas. There is no shortage of Rapanui chocolates or Lucciano's ice creams.
From classics to gourmet proposals, the gastronomic offer extends to the streets of Caballito
The area surrounding Parque Rivadavia also attracts attention because it is one of the examples that shows the change in the real estate cycle. After three years of falling property values, the price of a brand new square meter is on the rise. A survey recently carried out by Real Estate Report indicates that in the last year prices increased by 1.41%, almost neutralizing last year's drop of 1.92%.
Specifically, the report refers to the 58 developments within the 75 blocks on the south side between Del Barco Centenera streets, Rivadavia avenue, La Plata avenue and Directorio avenue. These gather a total of 160,168 square meters. Faced with so much development, dollar savers who bet on brick as a safeguard of value are looking at the opportunities for a well in the neighborhood. Of the 58 ventures, three have just been completed and the rest are in different stages of execution. In numbers, Azcuy points out that the cost per square meter starts at US$2,500 in different avenues of the neighborhood, while in Pedro Goyena the initial price when the project is launched is US$3,000.
The internal streets handle slightly more accessible values. “Projects in a new construction can start at US$2,000, depending on the quality of construction and location, and finished projects can start at US$3,000. On the other hand, the used ones have fallen around 30% because if not, they are not sold and, since there is a lot of competition with the brand new apartments, they have to be special units in very good condition and very well located so that they can be sold” , analyzes Alejandra González, leader of Justevila real estate.
An unexpected change in trend
Anyone who walks through the rest of the neighborhood begins to see more and more construction sites crossing Rivadavia avenue. High values in the South, lack of land, and the opportunity to build cheaper a few blocks away led to a decentralization of the premium environment that strengthened the North.
This spillover effect it is evident in the Parque Centenario area, an area circumscribed by the Sarmiento railroad tracks to the south, Río de Janeiro street and Honorio Pueyrredón avenue, as the eastern and western limits respectively, and Ángel Gallardo avenue as the northern border with Villa Crespo . Among the 50 blocks to the north of Rivadavia avenue, there are 37 undertakings in different instances of execution, of which 14 are works in the initiation stage.
“The broad growth that the southern zone had, the scarcity of lots, plus the increase in the value of the square meter, inevitably dragged the growth towards Caballito north,an area with more opportunities to undertake more square meters at a slightly lower value”, says Savelski. Luis D'Odorico, director of D'Odorico Propiedades, translates it into numbers: "The incidence of the lot in the south is US$600 to US$800 per square meter while in the north it is between US$300 and US$500, according to location”.
Beyond consolidation, the available land in the southern part is also decisive. “The only large pieces of land that remain are more than six or seven townhouses on the same lot,” says González, from Justevila. The benefit of the land value is combined with the window of opportunity generated by the devaluation in the cost of construction. Currently, building a building of just over 1,000 total square meters in horizontal property with eight floors starts from a budget of US$602,078.17, with a cost per sellable square meter of almost US$762.32. Measured in blue dollars,this month it costs 1.82% cheaper than in July, according to the Real Estate Report. "The growth in the number of works, to a large extent, is driven by investors who have a surplus of pesos and cannot find where to put them to cover themselves so that they do not liquefy with inflation, and the square meter is one more way they found to 'buy' dollars”, says Germán Gómez Picasso, founder of Real Estate Report.
Between the southern zone and the northern zone of Caballito, there are almost 100 real estate projects underway
The post-pandemic demand
“The new projects are given because people after the pandemic are not necessarily looking for a location but rather that the apartment has good measurements, ventilated and bright spaces. They prefer to live in the north with an aerial view rather than between party walls in a quiet part of the building. To achieve luminosity and views, you have to get lots at affordable values to build large-scale buildings”, analyzes D'Odorico. In contrast to the scarcity of lots in the southern zone, the opportunities in the north are due to the fact that in this area of the neighborhood there used to be companies that stopped working and were sold as properties, which gave rise to the possibility of planning projects bigger.
The opportunity to build in height and on the sides It allowed adding amenities, an aspect that improves the quality and the final price. “A pool in a 15-meter triple front is not the same as a small one on a terrace. In these lands you have open outdoor space with a pool, solarium and barbecue. Making taller buildings implies more light, space and height, and therefore higher value units”, indicates the expert. González highlights the completion of the properties offered in the area."Caballito has grown exponentially in the last 25 years in terms of quantity and quality of works," he says. "Apartments without double glazing or without Italian porcelain floors are hardly accepted," he exemplifies.
Luis D'Odorico agrees, who points out that "the developer who buys in an area that is not the core of a neighborhood and paid a lower incidence for the lot has to offer construction quality, in that mix success occurs."
Comfortable measurements, ventilated and bright spaces, some of the most frequent requirements before buying a property
A highly sought after aspect since the reconsideration of the quality of life that the pandemic generated is contact with nature. The Caballito norte area has the Centennial Park as the protagonist and a new work that seeks to add green and its own recreation space. The project consisted of removing several lanes from Honorio Pueyrredón avenue, between Gaona avenue and Neuquén street, to create a linear, pedestrian park, dubbed “green street”. The work connects two green spaces, Plaza 24 de Septiembre and Plaza Giordano Bruno, and adds almost 10,000 square meters of areas with tree planting and wooden benches, among other attractions for residents.
The neighborhood spirit also appears in the evaluation of the experts when they explain the proliferation of constructions. "This has a positive impact on all of Caballito, but especially construction is being done at a good pace to the north, which is an area that has not lost its spirit, with low houses and lots of greenery ," says Savelski.
With the removal of several lanes from Honorio Pueyrredón avenue, a linear park was developed, named “green street”.
As in the buying and selling market, Caballito is the most sought after for rent, according to the survey prepared by Mercado Libre and the University of San Andrés. The bad news for those who want to land in the neighborhood is that the apartments offered in the traditional modality are as scarce as in the rest of the city. The latest Real Estate Report report indicates that there are 11 studio apartments, 51 two-room properties and 27 three-room properties available. Just as the offer drops to historical lows, the value that the owners ask for scales: those that increased the most in the last year were the studio apartments. The average asking price for this type of property is $180,000 per month, a figure that grew by 280.95% in 12 months. The neighborhood in full construction boom does not escape the reality of the rental market.
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