Valuation check: 190 m² serviced apartment in Buenos Aires, asking ARS 1,240,000,000 - second opinion?

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The broker’s yield changed my view because it appears to omit about half of the owner’s real costs. I have therefore set it aside rather than treating it as evidence for the ARS 1,240,000,000 asking price.

The property is a 190 m² one-bedroom serviced apartment in Buenos Aires. The light and location appeal to me, but the condition is only average, the finishes need updating, and replacement work may be expensive locally. I have located three current listings and just one recorded transaction.

How would you grade the condition and deal with such a large area for a one-bedroom without forcing a precise price per square metre? I am also trying to rank the missing information: exact micro-location, remaining lease or operator term, service charges, parking, and outdoor space. I will still obtain a local appraisal before making any decision.
 
I would anchor the analysis to the completed sale and treat the three listings mainly as evidence of seller expectations. A straight price-per-m² adjustment could overvalue this unit because 190 m² is unusually large for one bedroom; the marginal square metres may not command the same rate as the core living space.

For condition, get an itemised refurbishment estimate rather than applying an arbitrary percentage. The biggest missing fact for me is whether the sold comparable is in the same micro-location and under a similar serviced-apartment arrangement.
 
First confirm what the 190 m² includes. Is it private internal area, or does the figure include outdoor space or some allocated/common area? That distinction could move the comparison substantially.

I would also want the full service-charge history and details of any lease or operator agreement, including its remaining length. Without those, the broker’s yield cannot be reconstructed on a like-for-like basis.
 
One more point: parking should be valued separately rather than buried in the floor-area rate, and the same applies to terraces or other outdoor space. Does the completed comparable have either? A superficially similar sale can be a poor anchor if it included parking and this apartment does not, or vice versa.
 
I partly disagree that condition should be reduced only by the refurbishment estimate. Buyers also price in disruption, uncertainty and the possibility that dated finishes conceal further work. I would grade the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, windows and building systems separately, then compare those grades with the completed sale. That is more defensible than calling both units simply “average.”
 
That is fair, although disruption and risk should not be added automatically if the completed comparable was also dated. Otherwise the same weakness gets counted twice.

A simple adjustment sheet would help: start with the sale, note differences in verified area, micro-location, light, condition, parking, outdoor space and serviced-apartment obligations, and show each adjustment separately. Keep the listing comparisons as a reasonableness range, not equal evidence.
 
For an income-led buyer, recurring service charges and the remaining lease or operator term may matter more than the cosmetic condition. For an owner-occupier, micro-location, layout and light may dominate instead. I would therefore run both an income view using actual owner-paid costs and a comparable-sales view. If they diverge sharply, that is useful information rather than a reason to average them mechanically.
 
Also put every comparable on the same valuation date and measurement basis before calculating anything. Record whether each number is an asking price or completed price, and do not mix gross and net yield assumptions.

With only one completed sale, I would present a range and sensitivity table rather than a single precise value: different verified areas, refurbishment allowances, service charges and lease assumptions. That will show which missing input genuinely drives the result.
 
The practical next step is to request the floor plan and area definition, evidence for the completed sale, current service-charge breakdown, lease/operator documents, and confirmation of parking and outdoor space. Then ask the local appraiser to explain how the 190 m² one-bedroom layout affects marketability, not merely apply a neighbourhood price per square metre. Until those points are resolved, ARS 1,240,000,000 is an asking figure, not a demonstrated valuation.
 
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