Work all day, ask for a credit and pay reasonable fees over thirty years for a living place was, once, a possible plan. In fact, that was the system that allowed the growth of access to owning a home from 1947 to 2001. However, for two decades fewer and fewer Argentines have been able to fantasize about this idea and this has just been confirmed by the latest data that has been published. released from the census. According to INDEC, currently, 34.5% of citizens do not own their home.
The hasty conclusion that was made from the data was the increase in the number of tenants. However, the experts consulted by NEWS insist that this is not necessarily the case. The economist and author of “Dueños o Inquilinos”, Francisco González Roucoexplained: “The data is partial because we do not know what is happening with other tenure regimes.”
In the same sense, he reflected Maria Victoria Boix, director of the CIPPEC Cities program: “From the research we did, it can be seen that there are around 2 million households that do not have regular tenure. It can happen, for example, because inheritance issues in Argentina are very bureaucratic. In any case, the census data is significant enough to understand the reality of access to housing in the country,” she said.
How can this crisis be concretely measured? One of the variables is the participation of mortgage loans in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). During the second quarter of 2022, this type of financing represented only 0.59% of GDP. In one of the best moments, before the 2001 crisis, that number reached 5.8%. And although the famous UVA credits had raised the figure to 1.5%, inflation, the crisis and the pandemic were a step back.
If this variable is compared with what happens in other countries in the region, the situation takes on even more dimension. In Chile, for example, mortgage loans represent 28.1% of GDP. almost 50 times more than in our country.
“In Argentina we always had very small numbers, but today we are at the worst level in history since we can measure them,” he stressed. Gonzalez Rouco. box He insisted that although in recent years “there have been good housing policies”, such as those carried out by Renabap or programs such as “My piece”, “when you look at the intercensal numbers, the needle did not move.”
Own house: Procrear, UVA and mortgage loans
For the middle sectors -and not to mention the low- buying a home is impossible. With increasingly devalued wages and a dollarized market, a good part of those who do get it do so thanks to an inheritance or some kind of stroke of luck. There are private banks that, for example, these weeks are granting mortgage loans to their employees and there are still a few that have opened their homes thanks to the Procreate or to the credits GRAPE.
If someone wanted to put a ticket on a ticket, they should dedicate their entire working life just to buying a house: “The average income required to acquire a property varies a lot from city to city, but the 2020 real estate report said that it takes 18, 5 years of average wages to buy 40 square meters in the City of Buenos Aires. That number has tripled since 2002,” he said. box.
So much box as Gonzalez Rouco they insisted that the GRAPE They are the sign that the credits are viable. Although there was a time when the increase caused controversy, delinquency rates are practically nil, which shows that people can afford it despite adjustments for inflation.
For the economist, moreover, making the differentiation between GRAPE and Procreate today does not make sense. “Procreate it became a brand and not a type of program. The Procrear of the Alberto Fernández period has a financial design more similar to that of the UVAs of the Macri years than the Procrear of Cristina’s times, ”he added.
Own home, under what conditions?
From CIPPEC they insist that when it comes to raising the problem of the housing crisis it is key to also see what happens with people’s living conditions. Just to cite some of the latest data released from the census: 58.4% of the houses cook with mains gas or electricity. The rest use jugs or firewood. Homes with potable water represent 85.4% and with a sewer connection, 62.6%.
“These are things that may be taken for granted. But when you look at how many are left out, you notice that the number is very high and that generates more inequality. For example, infant mortality is closely linked to diarrhea and this is closely related to water quality. You can’t not look at that,” he stressed. Box.
