Insights on Buenos Aires, Argentina
The Capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires is the largest office market in Argentina. Argentina is the second largest country by land mass in South America. The city is well-planned with a mix of magnificent Parisian, Italian and Spanish influenced architecture from the early 1900’s based around the city centre. New development comprises contemporary office and residential towers typical of modern cities. Buenos Aires is clean and has many parks and lots of street trees. The greening of the city is welcome during high temperatures and humidity where the canopies lower temperatures markedly.
I have witnessed a global trend where new commercial and residential development is attracted to water ways. This was no different for Buenos Aires. The Puerto Madero area was a narrow shipping channel where the port has now been relocated and the channel is now the water feature for a vibrant new residential, office and food precinct.
The people of Buenos Aires are proud, in fact they are extremely proud and it is not uncommon to be told that certain aspects of Buenos Aires are the world’s best. Many people I have spoken to include Buenos Aires is their list of favourite cities to visit.
Knight Frank has offices around all of South America including Buenos Aires. Newmark Knight Frank produces research reports for all of Latin America on a quarterly basis. Below we attach the Q3 2019 Office Market Report for Buenos Aires which is produced in English. Our contacts in Buenos Aires are, Founder and Director Domingo Speranza and Market Research Mariana Stossl. Please contact them for a complete insight into their market.
Of the total Class A office market more than half is distributed in two submarkets, Catalinas-Retiro - 400,000 sqm and Puerto Madero - 325,000 sqm. The latter is a marina style development which is built on an old shipping canal and was occupied by companies like Flow, Cablevision, Telecom, AON, London Supply, Urban Yard, Sura, Personal, Fibertel, ICBC, ITAV, Oracle and Hilton. Directly opposite in an area known as the Microcentro were global heavy weights, HSBC and Samsung.
Argentina – Income (Per Capita): $20,425
While it may be renowned throughout the world for the quality of its beef, there’s more to the Argentina economy than cattle: with a literate population of around 43 million, and a diversified, export-orientated industry, the country has managed to put the turmoil’s of its pollical and economic past aside to rank 2nd overall in South America in the Human Development Index, and third in terms of per capita.
Benefits: Sophisticated European style city with a good climate and alfresco lifestyle
Issues: Political stability, Stock market volatility and Sovereign debt.
Interesting points
The Obelisk monument is the location for any celebration and the Casa Rosada (Pink Palace/President’s House) on the Plaza de Mayo is the location for demonstration and protest.
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo – are women who gather, holding a vigil, while also trying to learn what had happened to their adult children during 1970s and 1980s. They began to gather for this every Thursday, from 1977 at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, in public defiance of the government's law against mass assembly. Wearing white head scarves to symbolize the diapers (nappies) of their lost children, embroidered with the names and dates of birth of their offspring, now young adults, the mothers marched in two's in solidarity to protest the denials of their children's existence or their mistreatment by the military regime. Despite personal risks, they wanted to hold the government accountable for the human rights violations which were committed in the Dirty War. The missing children are thought to have been protestors against the government of the day.