Argentina

With the benefit of hindsight, the best time to have bought property in Argentina was during the economic crisis of June-July 2002, when prices plunged by up to 50% in months. The market has since recovered substantially, but real estate remains incredibly cheap: an apartment in downtown Buenos Aires with swimming pool and secure parking costs a fraction of its equivalent in London. Although the long-term rental market is constrained by the low level of local salaries, demand for short-term lets has been helped by the weaker peso, which has boosted tourism. Buenos Aires, home to 3 million Porteños, is a cosmopolitan and bustling city with grand avenues and stylish restaurants that is more European than South American in flavour. Prices, at the equivalent of around £1,000 a square metre, are already back at the pre-crisis highs of 1997, but look as if they still have scope to rise further. One of the most expensive areas is Puerto Madero, a gigantic conglomerate, largely of new builds, on the banks of the Rio de la Plata river, which is one of the safest and also most expensive parts of the city. Over the border in Uruguay, Punta del Este, the St Tropez of Latin America, is good for holiday lets.

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