The price on the listing is not the price you pay. It never is, anywhere in the world, but in Argentina the gap surprises people because the line items have unfamiliar names and there is no mortgage to bundle them into. So let me do what most brokers won't: lay out every dollar before you spend it.
A quick orientation first. Almost everything here is paid in US dollars, in cash, at the closing table. There is no escrow, no underwriter, no 30-year amortization quietly absorbing the fees. What you see is what you wire. That transparency is actually a gift, once you understand it.
Property in Buenos Aires is priced and traded in US dollars, and has been since the 1970s. In early 2026, city apartments average roughly USD 2,450 per square meter, still around 12% below the 2017 to 2019 peak. That last detail matters: you are not buying at the top of a bubble. You are buying a dollar-denominated asset in a market that has not yet fully recovered its previous high.
The buyer typically pays 4% of the final sales price in commission. That is the standard in the city of Buenos Aires.
A wrinkle worth understanding: if the listing belongs to another firm, your broker requests a share of that firm's commission (usually 30% or 50%). If the listing firm refuses to share, you should still never pay double. At MGNI, in that scenario, our minimum buyer's fee is USD 1,500, disclosed to you in writing before you commit. No ambiguity, no surprise at signing.
The escribano is the single most misunderstood cost for foreign buyers, because in their home country a notary stamps a page and charges forty dollars. Here, the escribano runs the entire due diligence: he verifies the property is free of liens, debts, and legal disputes (the informes de dominio e inhibición) before a single dollar changes hands. He is the reason Argentina functions without an escrow institution, and he is why the buyer traditionally chooses the notary.
Budget accordingly:
The escribano deserves his own explanation, which is why we wrote a dedicated note on how notaries replace escrow.
Stamp tax (impuesto de sellos) applies to the transfer. For a primary residence, exemptions can reduce or eliminate part of it. This is folded into the escribano's calculation, which is why the used-property 2 to 3% figure already accounts for most buyers' tax exposure on the transaction itself.
Put it together and a foreign buyer of an existing apartment should plan for total closing costs of roughly 6 to 9% of the purchase price, commission included, all in US dollars. New construction runs higher because of the second deed. On a USD 300,000 apartment, that is somewhere in the range of USD 18,000 to 27,000 on top of the price.
I always model the exact figure for the specific property before you make an offer, not after. A surprise at the closing table is a failure of preparation, and preparation is the whole job.
Foreign buyers brace for costs that simply do not exist here:
Closing is one moment. Holding is forever. Budget for:
We cover the holding side in detail in our note on property taxes for foreign owners.
Buying in Buenos Aires is not cheap to close, but it is honest to close. Every cost has a name, a reason, and a number, and there is no financing layer hiding the math from you. A good deal, as I tell every client, is one where both parties leave the table a little unfulfilled. Knowing the real cost going in is how you make sure the only thing left unfulfilled is the haggling, not your bank account.
Want your exact number for a specific property? Send me the listing. The first call is free, and the breakdown is honest to the dollar.
Max.-
Thirty minutes. Free. In English. We answer everything in this note plus everything not in it.
