Most people here cannot save enough for a down payment for a house /department. So the only solution are mortgages. Little problem is that mortgages have been absent in anything but paper so Argentines have not been able to acquire property or housing with ease since years ago
Last time mortgages were available, it was in 2017/2018. After the currency devaluation that came on 2018/2019, banks, understandably, faced towards different ways of earning interest on their capital savings. Banks turned to high interest, high yield governmental bonds during the last 4 years, which was the way the leftist government found to capture all the extra pesos they were printing thrift the central bank daily to subsidize everything from food to services.
Little problem? The interest rates implied that the central bank had to pay even more pesos to the banks every time. So to avoid paying in an unpredictable bank run, they kept increasing the interest rate, therefore the banks would keep their money on the aforementioned bonds, the interest would increase, then to avoid an unpredictable bank run, the government would increase interest rates again and so on.
It was a literal trap.
But that explains why banks would not loan money for mortgages. Why would they if they had the government at their service printing money for them?
It’s not for nothing that the arrival of Milei is so celebrated by the 57% voting population. They guy literally saved us from hyperinflation.
Now thanks to Milei, banks now have to work and earn their money through real lending, not just interest rates being hiked at the expense of the people
Little problem is that mortgages have been absent in anything but paper so Argentines have not been able to acquire property or housing with ease since years ago
Last time mortgages were available, it was in 2017/2018.
This is the major piece of information I was missing! Thank you!
So even with the price of housing for sale falling substantially (because of the rental price caps), unless a would-be home buyer had 100% of the cash to buy the home (which I imagine is very rare), then they simply couldn’t get a loan (mortgage) at all. So they couldn’t buy the, at the time, very cheap housing even if they wanted to.
That explains it very clearly. I appreciate the time you took to explain that. I also appreciate the rest of your explanation about the further actions of currency devaluation impacts, banks on investment in government bonds, and the impacts on the nation from having to pay interest on those bonds at the inflated yields. Thanks!
Most people here cannot save enough for a down payment for a house /department. So the only solution are mortgages. Little problem is that mortgages have been absent in anything but paper so Argentines have not been able to acquire property or housing with ease since years ago
Last time mortgages were available, it was in 2017/2018. After the currency devaluation that came on 2018/2019, banks, understandably, faced towards different ways of earning interest on their capital savings. Banks turned to high interest, high yield governmental bonds during the last 4 years, which was the way the leftist government found to capture all the extra pesos they were printing thrift the central bank daily to subsidize everything from food to services.
Little problem? The interest rates implied that the central bank had to pay even more pesos to the banks every time. So to avoid paying in an unpredictable bank run, they kept increasing the interest rate, therefore the banks would keep their money on the aforementioned bonds, the interest would increase, then to avoid an unpredictable bank run, the government would increase interest rates again and so on.
It was a literal trap.
But that explains why banks would not loan money for mortgages. Why would they if they had the government at their service printing money for them?
It’s not for nothing that the arrival of Milei is so celebrated by the 57% voting population. They guy literally saved us from hyperinflation.
Now thanks to Milei, banks now have to work and earn their money through real lending, not just interest rates being hiked at the expense of the people
This is the major piece of information I was missing! Thank you!
So even with the price of housing for sale falling substantially (because of the rental price caps), unless a would-be home buyer had 100% of the cash to buy the home (which I imagine is very rare), then they simply couldn’t get a loan (mortgage) at all. So they couldn’t buy the, at the time, very cheap housing even if they wanted to.
That explains it very clearly. I appreciate the time you took to explain that. I also appreciate the rest of your explanation about the further actions of currency devaluation impacts, banks on investment in government bonds, and the impacts on the nation from having to pay interest on those bonds at the inflated yields. Thanks!