Why are rents still rising in Argentina after deregulation?

What exactly changed when Argentina scrapped its rental law?

The reform gave landlords and tenants much more freedom over price, length, currency and rent updates. It changed how rents are set, not whether they rise.

The old system was rigid for a country with triple-digit inflation. Under the 2020 Rental Law, leases ran three years and the rent could be updated only once a year with the ICL index, a mix of inflation and wages. A 2023 reform allowed six-month updates but lasted only a few months.

DNU 70/2023, in force since late December 2023, removed most of those rules. Under the Civil and Commercial Code the parties now choose the length; if the contract says nothing, a home lease runs two years. Rent can be set in pesos or dollars, the parties pick the index (IPC inflation, ICL, UVA or another), and deposits are negotiated freely.

The update rule matters most. With inflation above 100%, a landlord stuck with one increase a year put a full year of expected inflation into the starting rent. A landlord who can update every three or four months does not need to.

So the reform changed both the incentive to let and the timing of increases. That is why rents can rise every quarter today while staying below their old path.

Did Buenos Aires really get many more rental apartments after deregulation?

Yes. The return of rental supply was large, immediate and has lasted.

Zonaprop's series shows Buenos Aires City rental listings hitting a low in February 2023 after years of decline. Right after the old law went, listings jumped 62% in a month, then rose 195.4% over 2024.

The level has moved since, but it is still far above the old low: 3.6 times the February 2023 figure in September 2026, according to Zonaprop. A Universidad de San Andrés and Mercado Libre study found 326.2% more apartments for rent across the Buenos Aires metro area in September 2026 than in November 2023.

Academic work backs the listing data. Martin Elfert and Stephan Thomsen studied weekly Buenos Aires listings for an IZA discussion paper. Their preferred estimate is an immediate supply increase of about 46%, roughly 2,670 extra listings, followed by further growth.

The exact size depends on the model, so 46% is not a precise national number. The direction is hard to dispute: flats came back to long-term rental as soon as owners could set their own terms.

Part of that supply came from short-term rentals and empty flats. Zonaprop data cited by the IZA authors show temporary rental listings up about 52% during 2023, when owners were avoiding the old law.

Buenos Aires rental-supply measure	Before/around deregulation	What happened afterward	What it tells us
Rental listings, CABA (Zonaprop)	Low in February 2023	3.6× that low (Sept 2026)	The listing shortage is over
Rental listings, metro area (UdeSA–Mercado Libre)	November 2023	+326.2% (Sept 2026)	Same story outside the city
First monthly move	Very low supply	+62% in one month	Owners reacted almost at once
Supply during 2024	—	+195.4%	An exceptional first wave
IZA preferred estimate	Pre-reform trend	About +46% at deregulation	Research finds a causal effect
Temporary rentals before reform	+52% during 2023	Some returned to long-term rental	Part of the supply was existing homes switching use

If supply exploded, why are Buenos Aires rents still going up?

Because Argentina still has inflation. Extra supply slowed rent increases; it did not cut peso rents.

Take a simple example. A flat at ARS 500,000 would have risen 50% to ARS 750,000 without the new supply. If competition holds the increase to 30%, the tenant still sees ARS 650,000, even though the flat got much cheaper compared with where it was heading.

Buenos Aires City looks like that today. Zonaprop's two-room benchmark asks ARS 898,154 a month (USD 580), 28.7% more than in September 2025, while consumer prices rose 33.4% over the same 12 months (INDEC).

The same holds this year: city rents rose 20.8% from January to September 2026 against about 23.6% inflation, a real fall of about 2.3%.

A supply reform does not need to make peso prices fall to work in an inflationary economy. The test is whether rents rose more slowly than everything else, and in Buenos Aires they did.

Are Buenos Aires rents actually getting more expensive right now?

In pesos, yes. After inflation, no: asking rents are edging down in the city and falling faster in the suburbs.

The city's real fall is mild: about 2.3% from January to September 2026 and about 3.5% over 12 months.

Greater Buenos Aires is softer. In GBA North, a two-room flat asks about ARS 826,916, up 14.9% this year, a real fall of about 7%. Over 12 months rents rose 21.9% there, about 8.6% less than inflation.

GBA West rose 13.9% this year (ARS 651,251, about 7.8% down in real terms) and GBA South 14.5% (ARS 643,213, about 7.4% down). Over 12 months the real falls reach about 10.4% and 9.8%.

Across the four Buenos Aires markets Zonaprop tracks, peso rents keep rising, but the real direction is clearly down.

Market (Zonaprop, Sept 2026)	Two-room asking rent	Rent increase Jan–Sept 2026	Real change (inflation ~23.6%)	Direction
Buenos Aires City	ARS 898,154	+20.8%	-2.3%	Mild real fall
GBA North	ARS 826,916	+14.9%	-7.0%	Clear real fall
GBA West	ARS 651,251	+13.9%	-7.8%	Clear real fall
GBA South	ARS 643,213	+14.5%	-7.4%	Clear real fall

Did deregulation actually push Buenos Aires rents down?

Yes, compared with where they were heading. The best research so far finds Buenos Aires rents fell against their previous path right after deregulation, mostly once inflation is counted.

The IZA study by Elfert and Thomsen looks at the break around the reform using weekly listing data, rather than a simple before-and-after comparison.

Depending on the model, they find small nominal price drops and much larger real drops, with some estimates between about 13% and 29%. The price results are less stable than the supply results, so treat the exact figure with care. The direction is consistent: lower real rents after the reform.

The market numbers fit. Zonaprop recorded asking rents up about 260% in Buenos Aires during 2023, as landlords priced in years of inflation they could not pass on. Once updates became flexible and thousands of listings returned, rent inflation collapsed.

Chequeado's analysis of IDECBA data puts new city asking rents 32.9% below December 2023 in real terms by August 2026.

Why did rents start catching up again after the first drop?

Because the first supply shock could not repeat: most flats that could come back quickly had already come back.

The 2024 jump (+195.4% in city listings) was possible because owners could relist empty flats in weeks. Building the same number of new homes takes years.

Then the pace cooled. Zonaprop's city listings fell 6.9% in 2025 before rising again in 2026, including 6.6% in September alone.

Rents responded. CEPA found that for a long stretch after the first adjustment, asking rents rose faster than inflation again, clawing back part of the real drop.

In 2026 the balance shifted back: city rents run slightly below inflation and all three Greater Buenos Aires zones show bigger real falls.

So the market went through three phases: a huge supply release and real rent drop, a partial rebound, and a softer market again today.

Is the same thing happening across Argentina?

Not in the same way. Argentina has several rental markets, and they moved apart in early 2026.

Buenos Aires and its suburbs show real rent falls. Córdoba and Rosario were the counterexamples in the first half of the year.

Zonaprop put a one-bedroom in Córdoba at about ARS 619,000 a month in March 2026. Rents rose 11.1% in the first quarter against 8.5% inflation, beating it by about 2.6 points. Proppies' September 2026 index puts the average one-bedroom at ARS 610,042 (USD 395). It uses a different sample, so the two cannot be compared directly, and there is no newer Zonaprop reading for Córdoba.

Rosario was firmer. Zonaprop put a one-bedroom at about ARS 565,000 in May 2026, with rents up 15.9% from January to May, about one point above inflation, and 5.7% up in real terms over 12 months. There is no newer Zonaprop reading for Rosario.

The same national law applies everywhere; housing markets stay local. Buenos Aires had an unusually large stock of empty, for-sale and short-term flats that could switch to long-term rental. Córdoba and Rosario started from different supply levels and tenant bases.

So when someone says “Argentina's rents are rising after deregulation”, the first question is where, and when the figure was measured.

Market	Latest nominal rent trend	Compared with inflation	Real direction
Buenos Aires City	+20.8% Jan–Sept 2026	Below	Falling slightly
GBA North	+14.9% Jan–Sept 2026	Well below	Falling
GBA West	+13.9% Jan–Sept 2026	Well below	Falling
GBA South	+14.5% Jan–Sept 2026	Well below	Falling
Córdoba	+11.1% in Q1 2026	Above in Q1	Rising in Q1; no newer Zonaprop reading
Rosario	+15.9% Jan–May 2026	Slightly above	Rising through May

Do Argentina’s rental indexes show what tenants actually pay?

Only partly. The fresh indexes track asking rents for new leases, not what every tenant pays.

Zonaprop, CESO and IDECBA's listing data show what someone looking for a flat finds today. Signed contracts are much harder to observe.

The gap is big right now. Chequeado compared the two in October 2026: IDECBA's new asking rents in the city were 32.9% cheaper in real terms in August 2026 than in December 2023, but INDEC's index of rents actually paid in Greater Buenos Aires rose 683% over the same period, against 247% inflation.

The main reason is old contracts. Tenants who signed under the old law, with low starting rents, caught up with the market when they renewed, and that catch-up shows up in INDEC's index, not in portal data.

Contracts also differ more since deregulation. Two flats advertised at the same price can have very different update schedules: every three months by IPC, every four months, by ICL, or in dollars.

So “are rents falling?” needs a precise definition. New asking rents in Buenos Aires have fallen in real terms. That does not prove every sitting tenant pays less relative to income or inflation.

Did deregulation just replace expensive starting rents with more frequent increases?

Largely, yes. New leases tend to start closer to the market price and then update much more often.

Under the old yearly update, a landlord facing triple-digit inflation could lose half the rent's value before the next increase. A high starting price was the obvious defence.

Today most leases update every few months. The Encuesta Nacional Inquilina (808 tenant households, June 2026) found 78% of leases updated every three or four months, 65% of those by IPC inflation; only 3.2% still had a yearly update.

At 1.9% monthly inflation (September 2026), a quarterly update adds about 5.8% each time. Instead of one big jump a year, tenants get several smaller ones.

That explains the feeling that “the rent goes up all the time” even while new asking rents fall in real terms. Both can be true of the same lease.

Why does renting in Buenos Aires still feel so expensive?

Because real rents fell from an extreme level. They never fell far enough to be cheap relative to incomes.

CESO's May 2026 report put median asking rents in the city around ARS 600,000 for a studio, ARS 700,000 for a two-room flat and about ARS 1 million for three rooms. Zonaprop's average two-room asking rent was ARS 898,154 in September 2026.

In CESO's comparison the minimum wage was about ARS 363,000, covering only about 60% of a median studio rent, before building charges and utilities.

Surveys show the strain. In the June 2026 Encuesta Nacional Inquilina, the median tenant spent 40% of their salary on rent, 48.5% of households spent half or more, and 72.9% were in debt.

Pay is uneven. INDEC's wage index rose 35.7% over the 12 months to June 2026, but registered private-sector wages rose only 29.6%, below 33.4% inflation. Unemployment was 7.9% in the second quarter of 2026 (INDEC).

So a city flat can get cheaper against inflation and still get harder to afford for a family whose salary rose more slowly.

Affordability measure	Recent level	What it says
Median CABA studio asking rent (CESO, May 2026)	~ARS 600k	Well above one minimum wage
Median CABA 2-room asking rent (CESO, May 2026)	~ARS 700k	About twice the minimum wage in CESO's comparison
Average CABA 2-room asking rent (Zonaprop, Sept 2026)	ARS 898,154	The benchmark most quoted in the press
Minimum wage in CESO's comparison	~ARS 363k	Covers about 60% of a median studio rent
Tenants spending half their income or more (June 2026 survey)	48.5%	Rent still takes a huge share of pay
CABA renter households (CEPA)	36.2%	A large share of the city depends on this market

Are expensas making Buenos Aires rents look cheaper than they really are?

Yes. Building charges add more than a fifth to the advertised rent, which portal indexes leave out.

CESO found expensas averaging 22.7% of the asking rent in Buenos Aires City in June 2026.

On Zonaprop's two-room benchmark of ARS 898,154, that is about ARS 204,000 more a month, for a total around ARS 1.1 million (USD 710) before electricity, gas and internet.

Expensas keep rising too: ConsorcioAbierto put the city average at ARS 379,774 a month in September 2026, up 28.6% in a year.

Ordinary building charges are generally paid by the tenant; extraordinary ones stay with the owner. Utilities have also risen as subsidies were cut, and none of that shows up in a rent index.

For a tenant, the real question is the full monthly bill. Ask for the last three expensas receipts before signing.

Has deregulation made renting more attractive to Argentine landlords?

Yes. Returns have recovered enough to make long-term letting worth it again.

CEPA's first-quarter 2026 work on Buenos Aires shows how much gross yields changed: about 1.21% a quarter on a studio, against 0.52% five years earlier, and 0.96% against 0.43% for three-room flats.

Zonaprop puts the city's gross annual yield at 5.70% in September 2026, about 17.5 years of gross rent to repay the price, before vacancy, taxes and maintenance.

Greater Buenos Aires is similar or better: 5.56% in GBA North, 7.10% in GBA West and 7.44% in GBA South (Zonaprop, September 2026).

Córdoba pays more on paper: Zonaprop measured 7.8% in March 2026, while Proppies' September 2026 estimate is 6.8%.

Those numbers help explain the supply response. Owners can protect rent against inflation and earn a decent gross return, so fewer flats sit empty.

Rental market	Gross yield	Years of gross rent to repay the price	What it suggests
Buenos Aires City (Zonaprop, Sept 2026)	5.70%	~17.5 years	Letting pays again
GBA North (Zonaprop, Sept 2026)	5.56%	~18.0 years	Similar to the city
GBA South (Zonaprop, Sept 2026)	7.44%	~13.4 years	Higher yield, cheaper flats
Córdoba (Zonaprop Mar 2026 / Proppies Sept 2026)	7.8% / 6.8%	~12.8 / ~14.7 years	Stronger gross return
CABA studio, CEPA quarterly yield (Q1 2026)	1.21% vs 0.52% five years earlier	—	Large recovery for owners
CABA 3-room, CEPA quarterly yield (Q1 2026)	0.96% vs 0.43%	—	Not only small flats

Why hasn’t the surge in rental supply made Buenos Aires cheap?

The easy gains came from bringing existing flats back. Making Buenos Aires cheap would need more homes, higher incomes or weaker demand.

Owners could react overnight: an empty flat gets listed, a flat waiting to sell goes back to rental, a short-term let switches to a two-year lease. None of that adds a single home.

Adding homes is slow. Construction activity was down 4.4% in a year to August 2026 (INDEC's ISAC), even though permitted floor area in the city rose 37% in the second quarter. Zonaprop's January 2026 report, using Cámara Argentina de la Construcción costs at the MEP rate, showed dollar building costs more than double their late-2023 level.

Demand is deep. CEPA estimates 36.2% of city households rent, against 24% in 2003, while owners fell from 64% to 52%.

Mortgages have not changed that yet. Only 14.8% of Buenos Aires City purchases from January to August 2026 used a mortgage (Colegio de Escribanos), and new loans nationally fell 43% in the first seven months of 2026.

Location adds another limit. Zonaprop's two-room benchmark is ARS 1,268,186 in Puerto Madero (USD 820) against ARS 660,673 in Lugano (USD 425). More listings citywide do not make the best areas abundant.

Deregulation fixed a circulation problem in the existing stock. The rest of the affordability problem is structural.

Was Argentina’s old Rental Law really the main reason rents became so expensive?

It made the shortage worse, but the inflation crisis did more to push rents to extreme levels.

The supply case against the old law is strong. Listings collapsed for years, landlords had few ways to update rents while inflation accelerated, and supply rebounded as soon as the rules went.

The IZA research adds weight by finding a reform-driven jump in listings, not a coincidental recovery.

Prices are more complicated. Argentina ended 2023 with inflation above 200%. Anyone pricing a multi-year lease was guessing how fast the peso would lose value, and asking rents reflected that.

CEPA's inflation-adjusted series adds context: after the spike and the correction, real Buenos Aires rents went back toward levels seen a few years earlier, not to record lows.

The old law made a bad economy worse. Removing it could not fix inflation by itself, which is why the gains showed up in supply and real rents rather than in rents that stop rising.

Could Congress bring rent control back?

Not for now. On 15 October 2026 the opposition called a special session in the Chamber of Deputies to overturn DNU 70/2023, the decree that scrapped the rental law. Only 121 deputies showed up, short of the 129 needed, so the session never opened and the decree stays in force.

Overturning a decree needs both chambers to reject it, so a single failed session does not end the debate. Bills to restore minimum lease terms or annual updates may come back, especially as tenant surveys show high debt levels.

What to do: if you sign or buy now, assume today's rules (free length, index and currency) apply to your lease. Contracts signed under a given set of rules generally keep them, but get the clause on the update index and the currency in writing, and avoid leases that tie you to an index you cannot check.

What does deregulation mean if you buy a flat to rent out in 2026?

Easier letting, a modest yield and a tax question to settle first.

On the plus side, a flat lets faster than before 2024 and you can update the rent every three or four months. On the minus side, you compete with 3.6 times as many listings as at the 2023 low, so an overpriced flat sits empty, and peso rents are losing about 3.5% a year to inflation in the city.

Taxes cut the yield. Since 1 January 2026, rent from a home let as the tenant's permanent residence is exempt from income tax for resident individuals (Decree 406/2026). For non-residents the decree is silent (Estudio Piccinini, 29 June 2026), so plan on the default 21% of gross rent withheld unless an Argentine tax adviser confirms the exemption in writing. That alone takes Buenos Aires City's 5.70% gross yield to about 4.5%, before wealth tax (0.5% a year for a non-resident), city property tax, agency fees and empty months.

What to check: price the rent from current Zonaprop figures for the same area, prefer IPC updates every three months, make sure the lease states the flat is the tenant's permanent home, and agree in writing who pays ordinary and extraordinary expensas.

So why are rents still rising in Argentina after deregulation?

Because inflation never went away. Deregulation removed the extra cost created by scarce supply and rigid contracts; it did not stop peso prices from rising.

Buenos Aires listings surged after the reform, research finds a real supply effect, and asking-rent inflation fell from about 260% in 2023 to 28.7% over the 12 months to September 2026.

Today city rents rise more slowly than prices, and Greater Buenos Aires rents fell about 7% to 8% after inflation from January to September 2026. Córdoba and Rosario beat inflation earlier in the year, so one national figure hides a lot.

The reform also changed when tenants pay for inflation: lower entry prices, but updates every few months that make the rent feel like it never stops rising.

Affordability is the weak point. Expensas add about 23% to the asking rent, more than a third of city households rent, construction is falling and mortgages finance under a sixth of purchases.

The fair summary: “rents are still rising after deregulation” is true in pesos and misleading in real terms. The reform brought flats back and pushed new rents below inflation. It did not make housing cheap.