Hello, my name is Noah. I recently started a real estate development company in Palermo, Buenos Aires. I purchased a property, began demolition, and will be building a five story apartment building. I would love to meet other real estate developers in Argentina, but open to meeting other types of entrepreneurs as well. Please reach out if you’re interested in connecting!
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New Real Estate Developer Looking to Network
- Thread starter nomasmo
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earlyretirement
Moderator
Cool. What experience do you have? Where are you originally from? Have you done other projects before? Real estate in Argentina is much different than real estate anywhere else in the world. Best of luck to you.
Uncle Wong
Well-known member
Have you built anything in Argentina before? Last thing I would purchase or even think about in Buenos Aires is going with a developer that has no experience building in Argentina. Heard many horror stories. I heard there are even experienced people like Bowtied Mara on X that bought a bunch of properties and they never finished the units. No thanks!
Good luck.
Can you post more details? Where are you building at? Where is your project located at? Do you have a website for the units for sale? I would agree the last thing I would want to do is invest in a project from someone that hasn't done a project here. Fastest way to go broke!
No thanks! Unless you have put up a lot of buildings here. But it sounds like you are new. Not going to even think about someone that has never done a building here.
VINO
Well-known member
Would love to hear the story how you ended up wanting to develop in BA. Must be a cool story. Good luck. I renovated my apartment and that was enough of a disaster. I can't imagine building an entire building here without a lot of contacts.
Hey EarlyRetirement, nice to meet you. I am from the United States. I have no experience with real estate development, but my parents have developed their own real estate and businesses, so they've been a source of guidance to me.
Hello Wally, nice to meet you. I am building in Palermo Soho, a few blocks away from Plaza Serrano and Plaza Inmigrantes de Armenia. Not sure if I want to do rental units, AirBnB, or sell the units (or a combination of all three). I am financing the entire project myself. I will certainly be putting up a website at some point. It'll be a standard modern-style building, with balconies, some terraces at the top, and a commercial space at the bottom.
While backpacking in Argentina, I started touring properties to buy. I got connected with an entrepreneurial local who is now helping me and my architect create units that will sell in the market. Some of my family members have also gotten involved and launched Airbnb businesses in the area — Palermo seems to be full of opportunity.
That's really interesting that you renovated your apartment... was that in Argentina? I'd love to hear more about your experience.
Blockchain
Well-known member
Cool but be careful. Tons of horror stories online about Argentina and their business practices. Doesn't seem like a country to just wing it. Be careful of local partners that you might not know. Airbnb set up seems easy. Building a building not so much!
earlyretirement
Moderator
Cool. I'm also American and heavily involved in the real estate industry in Buenos Aires. I've been the largest buyer of residential real estate in Buenos Aires. I have financed many developers and buildings but NEVER invest in projects where the developer hasn't been around at least 25 years in Argentina.
Just be careful. Doing business is NOT like the USA. Everything is slow, difficult and lots of cons here. I know many people in your situation and lost it all here. Argentina is night and day from the USA.
I wish you the best of luck.
Uncle Wong
Well-known member
@nomasmo if you have never done anything here you should talk to @BuySellBA. I hired them to help me buy an apartment here. You should do a consultation with Mike (@earlyretirement ) He knows a lot about the real estate industry here and can probably give you a lot of advice.
Truer words couldn't be true. Be careful here. Not sure how you met your friends but doing business here is not for the faint of heart.
Canada Goose
Well-known member
Probably not a strong selling point trying to sell properties in Argentina and telling people you have no real estate development experience. I bought a place with one of the largest real estate developers in BA and they have been around for 40 years and I was still nervous. I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy a unit from you unless they were completely done.
Wish you a lot of luck on it. Real estate seems like it is going to continue to boom in BA. I regret selling my apartment but I was buying to live in not rent out but all the units in the building I was going to live in are always rented. But I flipped my apartment and made easy money so maybe I will buy something else when I am ready to come down there.
How did you meet your partners? Did you know them before? Man just be careful as I heard a lot of nightmares there. So many scams there. I have heard from many people that renovated in BA that had problem after problem.
James Bond
Well-known member
Will love to watch the progress. Demolitions and rebuilds are tough even for the most experienced developers but I have watched many projects stall where we lived before. Many people have the dream of doing what you are doing and can't manage with inflation, spiraling cost of materials or labor or other issues. Fortunately inflation has slowed down but many projects have stalled even today as construction costs have soared. My friend invested in a pozo and it has stalled. They stopped building for the past year.
earlyretirement
Moderator
@nomasmo listen to some of these people that are in the know. I can tell you that I am confident to say no single individual in Buenos Aires has financed more developing projects over the past 23 years than me and my firm. I've helped financing tons and tons of buildings and pozos. I have purchased over $700 Million in real estate in Buenos Aires over the past 2 decades.
With ALL that experience I only invest with 2 or 3 developers. That's it! You simply can't trust anyone that hasn't been doing this for 25+ years. Things are tough here. Even on renovations I only trust 3 firms in town. That's it! And most of the projects I do with 2 companies. The third firm I was working with, one of the designers died and left the architect using other people that weren't good or dishonest.
I've had people call me in your situation and they partnered with "friends" and it all turned into a disaster where the foreigner typically got cheated. So heed the warnings you are getting well. This place ain't the place to experiment in.
With ALL that experience I only invest with 2 or 3 developers. That's it! You simply can't trust anyone that hasn't been doing this for 25+ years. Things are tough here. Even on renovations I only trust 3 firms in town. That's it! And most of the projects I do with 2 companies. The third firm I was working with, one of the designers died and left the architect using other people that weren't good or dishonest.
I've had people call me in your situation and they partnered with "friends" and it all turned into a disaster where the foreigner typically got cheated. So heed the warnings you are getting well. This place ain't the place to experiment in.
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