South American country calls on international construction firms to help build 300,000 homes

Argentina is facing a shortage of more than 300,000 homes, officials from the South American country have revealed.

Speaking at Mipim Horizons, Marcelo Elizondo, the executive director of Argentine trade promotion agency Fundacion ExportAr, revealed the size of the housing gap in the country’s most popular residential markets, including Buenos Aires.

Elizondo called on international investment and construction firms to take advantage of the shortage and the Argentine government’s infrastructure investment package, pledged at $22bn.

Elizondo said: “There will be many opportunities. Construction is an area where the government will focus to keep [economic] momentum going. It will be its biggest spend for thirty years, and most of government spending is already on infrastructure and construction.”

Argentina has been less affected by the credit crunch than many other economies as around 90% of its housing sales are funded without bank mortgages, a point which, allied to relatively cheap land prices, its government hopes will help attract international interest.

Francisco Cabrera, the minister of economic development for Buenos Aires, said: “The fundamentals of Argentina’s economy are pretty good and if we can still find reasonable prices in Buenos Aires then it has to be promising.”

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