Buenos Aires is a big bustling city. There’s a lot of noise and people out and about almost around-the-clock.
When we first got here, we were, admittedly, uptight about the place…
But when you get used to it, when the daily scenes become more familiar, it’s surprisingly easy to relax here…
Today, the sun came out. It was cool and crisp yet warm in the sun, as autumn sets in for us here in the southern hemisphere. The weather put everyone in a good mood. It was a pleasure just to be out in the streets.
We talked to a friend today about the appeal of Palermo Viejo… that it’s a relaxed place… The buildings are low. The narrow cobblestone streets slow the cars down (sort of). The people are young and carefree. It’s like a small town in a big city… When we had lunch there the other day we heard English from nearly half of the surrounding lunch tables… some of it a lispy sort of English…
The area has a lot of gay English and American men… which we take as a bullish sign for real estate in the neighborhood. As in New York, San Francisco, London, and probably in many other cities we’re not aware of, gay men have pioneered once downtrodden areas into hip and desirable neighborhoods…
Anyway, we think that Palermo Viejo, and especially Soho, is still a viable and sustainable real estate hot spot. We’re going back to the area tomorrow to scout out some more properties…
But, Palermo Viejo has some definite negatives that we should also point out…
First, a lot of it is ugly and rundown. It’s still an “emerging neighborhood”. You can be on a very attractive street, walk over a couple blocks and… uugghh, it looks like hell…
Second, it was a poor neighborhood so many of the houses’ interiors have been hacked up to accommodate poorer families, as I wrote about in my post ‘Sausage Houses — The Problem With Soho’
The last drawback is that it is arguably less safe than other areas like Recoleta and Puerto Madera. There are less people in the streets, which implies slightly less security. But we’d wager that the real security difference is negligible, as the place is home to loads of foreigners, but it’s something to consider.
We’ll spare you further ramblings about Palermo, dear reader, but we’ll undoubtedly come up with something else to bore you with tomorrow… till then…
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
April 25, 2007 at 8:01 pm
matt
Most of the properties you find in Palermo, Villa Crespo, Chacarita and pretty much any low-rise BA neighbourhood haven’t been ‘hacked up’-they were designed that way. The name of this type of property is a PH or Propiedad Horizontal. Instead of building a tower block, land was divided up into thin strips. The standard frontage is 8.66m across. The front house usually, but not always, has an independent entrance and the other houses (between 2 and 6 is the norm) are reached via the side passageway.
To keep costs down, each house going back in horizontal line has pretty much the exact same layout except for the fact that the front house is almost always bigger lengthways. That often means 3-5 rooms on the right hand side of the property, an internal patio on the left and a staircase leading to a service room on a kind of mezzanine level. These PHs almost never had terraces in the original plans-these were usually builit later and without planning permission.
When buying a PH you have to bear in mind that it is a condo and the other owners can seriously screw with you if they want to. And it’s exceedingly normal to get at least one bad neighbour who’s lived there all their life and who only wants to make life a misery for johnny foreigner. Seriously, i saw it many times and we had the same problem when we renovated our PH.
Also bear in mind that the plans must be up to date otherwise you could be in for a shock should the council ever get around to inspecting. And they do, now and again. Undeclared terraces are almost always overlooked but constructions on the roof are not. They contravene the Ley del Propiedad Horizontal which is sometimes strictly enforced, particularly if a neighbour makes a complaint to the council.
A lot of foreigners have made the mistake of thinking that their PH is their house but it’s not-it’s part of an apartment block. The interior patio of each property is actually ‘espacio comun de uso exclusivo’ which means that you have to get permission from the neighbours and then planning permission from the council should you, for example, want to roof over it. The roof is also classed in the same way. You can’t put windows in the passageway (commonly done and not usually a problem). You can’t touch the Facade of the property without the neighbours’ permission, no matter how much it will improve the property and increase its value.
I talk from personal experience and also from the experience of a lot of people i met during my time in BA, both locals and foreigners. Problems can normally be overcome (ours all were, fortunately) but it can be stressful dealing with vengeful neighbours.
So basically, *check the plans are up to date* and talk to *all* the neighbours before making a firm decision.
Good luck…
April 25, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Editor
No, I’m not talking about PHs regarding the casas de chorizo… I know the difference, as our realtor explained it to us when we first started looking at things…
But you’re certainly right that many of the buildings that look like individual houses are in fact PHs… and that foreigners might not be aware of this.
It’s definitely something to take into account.
WB
April 26, 2007 at 7:02 am
Dalton
A PH has the same characteristics about rules and protocols than a Tower ( Apartments) . Anybody cannt to construct without permission ( Or put a windows ) , because is established a “Consorcio” ( council) where are taked the decisions by the owners together.
Obviously, saving each case, A tower has much more conditions, but the essence is the same than PH (or tower ). The difference among them are the numbers of floors, but nothing else, and the cost of maintenance or ” expensas”.
I saw several PH and the patios are perfectly marked on the plans , belonging each patio to each owner , without problems. The ” Escritura” has established what belong to U, what you did buy and nobody can change.
The recommendation is the alert about the “escritura” , read it how many times would be necesary. The area common to all owners must be the main door and the “pasillo! corridor ( Like a Tower, the main corridor ), if this exist in the PH. The majority of PH has not corridor to share , and has individual entrance.
Obviously, PH exists on all prices and conditions, like all the places