Summary
Yes, but only in pesos. A two-room flat in Buenos Aires City asked ARS 898,154 a month in September 2026 (USD 580), 28.7% more than a year earlier, while inflation ran at 33.4%, so rents are falling in real terms.
The 2023 boom is long gone. Buenos Aires asking rents rose about 260% that year; the annual pace is now 28.7%, and September's 1.3% monthly rise was the smallest of 2026.
Supply did it. After rent control ended with DNU 70/2023, rental listings came back fast, and in September 2026 Zonaprop counted 3.6 times as many as at the February 2023 low.
The suburbs are cooling faster than the city. From January to September 2026, rents rose 20.8% in Buenos Aires City but only 13.9% to 14.9% in Greater Buenos Aires, against about 23.6% inflation.
Provincial cities were firmer earlier in the year: Rosario rents beat inflation by about 1 point through May and Córdoba by 2.6 points in the first quarter. Newer readings from Mendoza, Bariloche and Neuquén show rents losing to inflation there too.
Rents rise in pesos and still get cheaper because everything else rises faster: a flat that cost about ARS 698,000 a year ago and asks ARS 898,000 now is cheaper in real terms.
Tenants don't feel it. In a June 2026 survey, 78% of tenants had leases that update every three or four months, so at 1.9% monthly inflation the rent still jumps about 5.8% each quarter.
Renting is still hard to afford. In the same survey, 48.5% of tenant households spent half their income or more on rent, and 72.9% were in debt.
Building charges add a lot: CESO found expensas worth 22.7% of the asking rent in Buenos Aires in June 2026, which takes a typical two-room flat to about ARS 1.1 million a month.
Wages are gaining on rents on average (+35.7% in a year to June 2026, INDEC), but registered private-sector wages rose only 29.6%, about the same as rents.
Rosario was the firmest big market, with rents up 5.7% after inflation over the 12 months to May 2026, even though CESO counted 20% more rental listings than a year earlier.
A new surge would need an inflation or currency shock: the dollar is around ARS 1,550, far below the ARS 1,941 band ceiling, and analysts expect about ARS 1,614 by December 2026.
A foreign landlord keeps less than the gross yield: Buenos Aires yields 5.70% gross, but the default 21% withholding on a non-resident's rent cuts that to about 4.5% before other costs.
For a new lease, the index is the main lever: ICL rose 31.5% in a year, faster than new asking rents (+28.7%), so tenants should push for inflation-based updates and negotiate on small flats.
Bottom line: Argentine rents still rise in pesos but now at or below inflation. Price a rental on today's market, not on 2023 memories, and expect rent to lag prices for now.
How fast are rents rising in Argentina in 2026?
In pesos, still fast. After inflation, Buenos Aires rents are going down.
Zonaprop's Buenos Aires City index puts a standard two-room flat (50 m², one bedroom) at ARS 898,154 a month in September 2026, about USD 580. Asking rents rose 1.3% in the month, 20.8% from January to September and 28.7% over 12 months.
The useful comparison in Argentina is inflation. Prices rose about 23.6% from January to September and 33.4% over the 12 months to September 2026 (INDEC). So city rents are down about 2.3% in real terms this year and 3.5% over a year.
Greater Buenos Aires is further ahead in that adjustment. Two-room rents rose 14.9% in GBA North, 14.5% in GBA South and 13.9% in GBA West over the first nine months of 2026, which is a real fall of 7% to 8%.
So the answer depends on what you mean by rising. Landlords ask for more pesos every month. What renting really costs across most of Greater Buenos Aires is going down.
| Market (Zonaprop, Jan–Sept 2026) | Two-room rent, Sept 2026 | Rent increase in 2026 | Real change (inflation ~23.6%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buenos Aires City | ARS 898,154 | +20.8% | -2.3% |
| GBA North | ARS 826,916 | +14.9% | -7.0% |
| GBA South | ARS 643,213 | +14.5% | -7.4% |
| GBA West | ARS 651,251 | +13.9% | -7.8% |
Is Argentina still in the huge rental boom of 2023?
No. The 2023 surge is over, and the difference in scale is huge.
Zonaprop recorded a 260% increase in Buenos Aires asking rents during 2023, faster than the roughly 212% inflation of that year. CESO saw similar annual increases at the end of 2023, with some apartment sizes close to or above 300%.
The annual rate is now 28.7%. It has slowed all year: 32.5% in May, 30.7% in July and 28.7% in September 2026, when the monthly rise of 1.3% was the smallest of the year.
CESO's own median asking rents point the same way. In June 2026 two-room flats in the city were up 20.7% over a year and three-room flats 25%; only studios ran higher, at 33.3%.
Inflation explains part of the gap between 2023 and today, but the rental market itself has cooled. Tenants no longer fight over a handful of flats.
| Period | Annual CABA rent growth (Zonaprop) | What was happening |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | ≈260% | Severe shortage and very high inflation |
| 2024 | Rapidly slowing | Supply returns after deregulation |
| 2025 | Further normalisation | Rent growth gets closer to inflation |
| September 2026 | 28.7% | Below 33.4% inflation |
Starting a Rental in Argentina
Did Argentina's rental deregulation actually bring apartments back onto the market?
Yes. The return of rental supply after deregulation was large and it has lasted.
DNU 70/2023, in force since late December 2023, scrapped the old rental law's fixed three-year term and annual ICL updates. Owners and tenants now agree the length, currency, index and update frequency themselves; if the contract says nothing, the lease runs two years.
Flats came back almost at once. Zonaprop reported a 62% jump in Buenos Aires rental listings shortly after the change, and a government assessment based on Mercado Libre listings found metro-area supply 211.9% higher six months after the reform.
The supply has not gone away. Zonaprop's rental listings were 3.6 times their February 2023 low in September 2026 and grew another 6.6% that month alone. CESO counted 44% more rental offers in the city in June 2026 than a year earlier.
One decree does not explain everything: inflation, the exchange rate, sale prices and a recession were all moving at the same time. But owners who had pulled their flats off the long-term market came back, and they are still there.
Are Buenos Aires rents actually falling after inflation?
Yes. Real rents are falling in Buenos Aires City and in all three Greater Buenos Aires areas tracked by Zonaprop.
The mildest drop is in the city: about 2.3% after inflation from January to September 2026, and about 3.5% over 12 months.
The suburbs fall more. Over 12 months to September 2026, two-room rents rose 21.9% in GBA North, 20.3% in GBA South and 19.5% in GBA West against 33.4% inflation, a real fall of about 8.6%, 9.8% and 10.4%.
These declines are real money. A tenant still gets a higher peso quote every few months, but the landlord collects less purchasing power from a new lease than a year ago.
Official data agree. The city's statistics institute, IDECBA, measured a 32.6% annual rise in used-apartment rents in Q2 2026 against 32.7% city inflation: flat in real terms on that measure, while the newer Zonaprop data show a slight fall.
| Area (Zonaprop) | 12-month rent increase, Sept 2026 | Real change over 12 months (33.4% inflation) |
|---|---|---|
| Buenos Aires City | +28.7% | -3.5% |
| GBA North | +21.9% | -8.6% |
| GBA South | +20.3% | -9.8% |
| GBA West | +19.5% | -10.4% |
Is the rest of Argentina seeing the same rental slowdown?
It was not, earlier in the year. The newest provincial readings now point the same way as Buenos Aires.
Rosario was the strongest counterexample. Zonaprop put a one-bedroom flat at ARS 565,028 a month in May 2026, with rents up 15.9% in the first five months of 2026, about one point faster than inflation, and 5.7% up in real terms over 12 months.
Córdoba was firmer than Buenos Aires too: Zonaprop recorded an 11.1% rise in the first quarter of 2026 against 8.5% inflation, though that was slower than the 18.5% of the same quarter a year earlier. Proppies put the average one-bedroom in Córdoba Capital at ARS 610,042 in September 2026 (USD 395).
Reporte Inmobiliario's survey of the main interior cities, published in May 2026, found one-bedroom rents up 42.6% and two-bedroom rents up 49.8% over a year, against 35.3% inflation.
Later data are softer. In Mendoza, InmoUP measured apartment rents up only 4.6% to 12.8% from January to August 2026, against about 21.3% inflation. Roomix showed Bariloche asking rents flat over 12 months and Neuquén up 25% in October 2026, both well below 33.4% inflation.
So treat any single “Argentina rent” figure with care. Buenos Aires is clearly falling in real terms; the interior was catching up after years of lag and now looks to be cooling, city by city.
| Market | Latest nominal trend | Real direction |
|---|---|---|
| Buenos Aires City | +28.7% in 12 months (Sept 2026) | Down |
| Greater Buenos Aires | +19.5% to +21.9% in 12 months (Sept 2026) | Down sharply |
| Rosario | +15.9% Jan–May 2026 | Up (+5.7% real in 12 months) |
| Córdoba | +11.1% in Q1 2026 | Up in Q1 |
| Mendoza | +4.6% to +12.8% Jan–Aug 2026 | Down |
| Bariloche / Neuquén | 0% / +25% in 12 months (Oct 2026) | Down |
70+pagesWhy can rents rise in pesos while getting cheaper?
Because inflation raises almost every peso price in Argentina, so a rent can go up a lot without becoming more expensive compared with everything else.
Take the Buenos Aires benchmark. A two-room flat that asked about ARS 698,000 in September 2025 asks ARS 898,154 now, 28.7% more pesos.
Over the same 12 months consumer prices rose 33.4%. To keep up, that rent would have had to reach about ARS 931,000. It didn't, so the tenant pays less in real terms.
The gap is bigger around the capital: GBA West rents rose 13.9% this year against about 23.6% inflation, GBA South 14.5% and GBA North 14.9%.
In a low-inflation country, a weaker rental market shows up as lower sticker prices. In Argentina the adjustment happens without the peso amount ever going down.
Are renters actually feeling this slowdown?
Often, no. Tenants still feel their rent jumping all the time, because most leases now update every few months.
The Encuesta Nacional Inquilina by Inquilinos Agrupados (808 tenant households, June 2026) found that 78% had leases updated every three or four months. Only 3.2% still had a yearly update.
ACIJ's 2025 Encuesta Inquilina for the Buenos Aires metro area found the same pattern a year earlier: 48% of contracts were updated every three months, 15% every four months and 21% every six months.
At 1.9% monthly inflation (September 2026), three months of updates add about 5.8%. A tenant on an inflation-linked lease can get that jump four times a year even while market rents fall after inflation.
Leases are shorter too: 71% of tenants in the June 2026 survey had two-year contracts, while 84% said they wanted three years or more.
Has the bigger rental supply made renting affordable again?
No. More flats have cooled rent increases, but rent still takes a large share of income for many households.
In the June 2026 Encuesta Nacional Inquilina, the median tenant spent 40% of their salary on rent, and 48.5% of households spent half or more. ACIJ's 2025 survey of the metro area had 57% of renter households above half their income, up from 38% a year earlier.
Debt is the other sign: 72.9% of tenants surveyed in June 2026 had active debts, the highest level in the series.
Current prices explain it. A two-room flat in Buenos Aires City asks about ARS 898,000 a month, while the minimum wage is ARS 367,800 a month (July–December 2026), about 41% of that. CESO found the minimum wage covered only about 60% of a median studio rent in mid-2026.
Supply solved one problem: finding a flat is much easier than during the shortage. Paying for it is still hard for many households.
Are building charges now a major part of the rent bill in Buenos Aires?
Yes. Looking only at the advertised rent understates what a Buenos Aires tenant pays.
CESO found that expensas averaged 22.7% of the asking rent in Buenos Aires City in June 2026. In the first half of 2024, the figure was closer to 17%.
Applied to Zonaprop's two-room benchmark of ARS 898,154, that is about ARS 204,000 more a month (USD 130), for a total around ARS 1.1 million before electricity, gas and internet.
Building charges are still rising. ConsorcioAbierto put the average CABA expensas at ARS 379,774 a month in September 2026, up 28.6% in a year: about as fast as rents.
The price of the lease is falling in real terms; the cost of living in the building is not falling as much. Ask for the last three expensas receipts before signing.
| Monthly cost, two-room flat in CABA | Approximate amount |
|---|---|
| Asking rent (Zonaprop, Sept 2026) | ARS 898,154 |
| Expensas at 22.7% (CESO, June 2026) | ARS 204,000 |
| Rent plus expensas | ARS 1.1 million (USD 710) |
| Utilities | Extra |
70+pagesAre Argentine wages catching up with rents?
On average, yes. For registered private-sector workers, barely.
INDEC's wage index rose 35.7% over the 12 months to June 2026. Buenos Aires asking rents rose 28.7% over the 12 months to September 2026.
The average hides a big split. Registered private-sector wages rose only 29.6% and public-sector wages 30.1%, both below 33.4% inflation. The total is pulled up by informal wages (+59.5%).
So a salaried employee in a registered job has seen pay rise about as fast as rents, not faster. Tenants with low or informal incomes and pensioners still start from a very hard position.
Rents are no longer outrunning pay as they did in 2023. That helps at the margin, but it does not undo the damage of the shortage years.
Why were Rosario rents rising faster than Buenos Aires rents?
Rosario looked like a genuinely tighter market in the first half of 2026, and inflation cannot explain it because both cities share the same national prices.
Zonaprop had Rosario rents up 15.9% from January to May 2026, slightly ahead of inflation, while Buenos Aires City rents were falling behind it.
Supply did not shrink. CESO counted 20% more rental listings in Rosario in May 2026 than a year earlier, while its annual asking-rent increases ran from 30.6% to 35.4% depending on size. Demand absorbed the extra flats without real rents falling.
Rents are not low there either: Reporte Inmobiliario put a one-bedroom at ARS 624,090 a month in May 2026 (USD 405), and CESO found the minimum pension stopped covering the median studio rent from early 2026.
For a landlord, Rosario's Zonaprop gross yield was 5.99% in May 2026, slightly above Buenos Aires City's 5.70%. Rosario has no Zonaprop rent reading after May 2026, so check current listings before assuming it is still beating inflation.
Could Argentine rents start accelerating again?
Yes, if inflation or the dollar jump. There is no sign of a repeat of 2023 now.
Inflation was 1.9% in September 2026 and 33.4% over 12 months, far from the 2023 crisis. The dollar was around ARS 1,550 on 22 October 2026, and the BCRA's September survey of analysts expects about ARS 1,614 at the end of 2026.
Supply is the main buffer. With listings 3.6 times their 2023 low, a landlord who asks too much loses the tenant to the flat next door.
The weak point is the contracts themselves. Leases updated every three months by inflation pass any new price shock to tenants fast, and about a quarter of Buenos Aires listings are priced in dollars (26% in CESO's June 2026 count). The wholesale dollar is well below the ARS 1,941 ceiling of its band; a jump toward it would raise dollar rents in pesos at once.
A return to triple-digit rent increases would need a break in the current economic path, a sharp loss of rental supply, or both.
70+pagesWhat does a foreign landlord keep from Argentine rent after the 2026 tax change?
Less than the gross yield, and less than a local landlord. Since 1 January 2026, rent from a home let to a tenant as their permanent residence is exempt from income tax for resident individuals (Law 27.802, Decree 406/2026, published 1 June 2026). Tourist and short-term lets are not covered.
For non-residents the decree is silent. Tax firm Estudio Piccinini flagged the doubt on 29 June 2026. Until an Argentine tax adviser confirms otherwise, plan on the default: 35% withholding on a presumed 60% net income, which is 21% of gross rent.
On Buenos Aires City's 5.70% gross yield (Zonaprop, September 2026), that alone brings you to about 4.5%. GBA South's 7.44% drops to about 5.9%. Then come wealth tax (Bienes Personales, 0.5% a year of the property's value for a non-resident, paid through a local representative), city property tax, agency fees, extraordinary expensas and empty months.
Before buying to rent, check that the lease will clearly be the tenant's permanent home (the condition for the exemption), who pays ordinary and extraordinary expensas, and whether your adviser will put the non-resident treatment in writing.
What should you negotiate on a new Argentine lease right now?
Almost everything is open since DNU 70/2023: length (two years if the contract says nothing), currency, the update index (IPC inflation, ICL, UVA or another) and how often it applies.
For tenants, the index matters most. The ICL, the old law's index, rose 31.5% over 12 months, faster than new Buenos Aires asking rents (+28.7%). A lease updated by ICL can end up above the market; ask for IPC-based updates and compare the starting rent with current Zonaprop figures for the same area.
With listings still growing and real rents falling, there is room to offer below the asking price on studios and one-bedroom flats, especially in Greater Buenos Aires, where rents fell 8.6% to 10.4% in real terms over a year. That room is smaller for three-room flats, which are scarcer.
For landlords it is the mirror image: price at market from day one. An overpriced flat sits empty, and one empty month costs more than the difference you were holding out for.
So, are rents still rising in Argentina?
Yes in pesos, but the boom is over. Around Buenos Aires rents now rise more slowly than inflation, and the provincial cities that beat inflation in early 2026 are cooling too.
Several independent measures agree for Buenos Aires: Zonaprop has city rents up 28.7% over 12 months against 33.4% inflation, Greater Buenos Aires down 8.6% to 10.4% in real terms, and IDECBA's official data flat after inflation.
The return of rental supply after DNU 70/2023 explains most of it. Landlords now compete with 3.6 times as many listings as at the 2023 low.
Rosario and Córdoba beat inflation in the first part of 2026, so Argentina still has more than one rental cycle. But Mendoza, Bariloche and Neuquén show rents losing to inflation in the latest readings.
Affordability is still bad: about half of surveyed tenants spend half their income or more on rent, and expensas add about 23% to the asking price in Buenos Aires.
For a tenant, this is a good moment to negotiate. For a buyer, count on rents roughly tracking or lagging inflation, not beating it, and on a gross yield of about 5.7% in Buenos Aires City, before the 21% a non-resident may owe.
Our methodology
This article looks at whether long-term rents in Argentina are still rising, in pesos and after inflation, with most weight on Buenos Aires City and Greater Buenos Aires (the deepest data) and comparisons with Rosario, Córdoba, Mendoza, Bariloche and Neuquén. It also covers rental supply, lease terms, affordability, building charges, wages, the risk of a new surge and what a foreign landlord keeps.
Rent levels and trends come from Zonaprop's September 2026 indices for Buenos Aires City and GBA North, South and West, its May 2026 Rosario and March 2026 Córdoba indices, IDECBA's Q2 2026 rental study, CESO's monthly rental reports (asking rents, supply, expensas), Reporte Inmobiliario's May 2026 interior-cities survey, Proppies (Córdoba), InmoUP (Mendoza) and Roomix (Bariloche, Neuquén). Real changes are our own calculation: nominal rent change divided by INDEC inflation over the same months. Affordability and lease terms come from the Encuesta Nacional Inquilina (June 2026) and ACIJ's 2025 survey; wages from INDEC's wage index; expensas from CESO and ConsorcioAbierto.
Inflation comes from INDEC (September 2026: +1.9% in the month, +33.4% over 12 months, about 23.6% from January to September), exchange-rate expectations from the BCRA's September 2026 market survey. Lease rules come from DNU 70/2023 and the Civil and Commercial Code; the tax treatment of rents comes from Law 27.802 and Decree 406/2026, with the non-resident question taken from Estudio Piccinini's analysis. Yields come from Zonaprop.
We checked these figures in October 2026. Peso amounts are converted at about ARS 1,550 per US dollar (official and MEP rates were within 1% of each other on 22 October 2026, the blue rate about ARS 1,570), and euro amounts at about ARS 1,740 per euro.
All rent figures are asking rents, not signed contracts, and sources use different samples, so we compare directions rather than blending them. Where we had no direct figure, such as a Rosario or Córdoba reading after May 2026 or a net yield for a non-resident landlord, we say so and use the latest dated reading or the default withholding rule.
Key sources used for this analysis include Zonaprop's CABA rental index, GBA North index, GBA South index, GBA West index, Rosario index, Córdoba index, Infobae on September 2026 Buenos Aires rents, CESO's June 2026 CABA rental report, CESO's Rosario research, IDECBA's rental-market report, La Nación on Reporte Inmobiliario's city rent survey, Proppies' Córdoba rental index, the Encuesta Nacional Inquilina (June 2026), ACIJ's Encuesta Inquilina 2025, INDEC's wage index, INDEC's consumer price index, the BCRA's September 2026 market expectations survey, DNU 70/2023, the government's rental-law impact assessment, Decree 406/2026, Estudio Piccinini on non-resident landlords and Zonaprop's CABA rental-yield index.
