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I live in Argentina and I am 21 years old. One of my goals is to buy an apartment but the problem is the more money I have, the more money I am losing because of inflation. One of the options is to simply buy dollars and that way the inflation does not affect too much, but the problem is that here in Argentina all the properties increase theirs value even in dollars. For example you could have bought an apt in 2010 for 60k USD and sell it today for 100k USD or even more.

Given that, I would assume that one the best options would be to buy something small or old and then, save more money and move to a newer or bigger apt and so on till you reach what you need. But this scenario is only viable if you have a minimum of cash to buy at least a small apt and of course this could be really annoying because you would have to be moving every 2 o 3 years and thats not easy nor comfortable.

So how would you achieve buying an apt given that I currently live with my parents and that I can save a reasonable amount of money?

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  • Remember that when you buy the next one, its price will also have changed. Standard advice: Real estate can be a business or a residence; it is unwise to ever count it as both at once.
    – keshlam
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 1:37
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    It doesn't sound like the OP is looking for an investment opportunity per se. It looks to me like an attempt to hedge his natural negative exposure to real estate prices.
    – Yosef Weiner
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 7:54

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Inflation of the type currently experienced in Argentina is particularly hard to deal with. Also, real estate prices in global cities such as Buenos Aires and even secondary cities have grown significantly. There are no full solutions to this problem, but there are a few things that can really help.

  1. Invest the money instead of just buying USD. Global bonds (and maybe some stock as well) give the same sort of protection against Peso free-fall while offering some return to help with the rising housing costs.
  2. I know this is tough when living with your parents but be patient. When housing prices rise this fast this quickly the market may be overpriced. Waiting for the prices to correct may make the house you want more affordable. Buying houses every 2-3 years can be remarkably expensive when you take into account all the costs involved. Renting instead of buying is likely a better first step if you need to live on your own.
  3. Keep working hard, getting promotions and saving more. This is not easy in a high inflation country but if you can get your salary to grow faster than inflation and keep your costs low that is the most solid method for saving.
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