Real Estate Chamber Urges Government to Include Money Laundering in Property Regulations as Real Estate Market Struggles to Recover

The Real Estate Chamber (CIA) has formally requested the Executive Branch to include the possibility of money laundering funds being used to purchase used properties in the regulation. This comes after the approval of the Law of Bases and fiscal package.

The president of CIA, Ivan Ginevra, explained that while the law allows for specific destinations of money laundering to be exempt from taxes, it leaves it to the Executive Branch to define additional exempt destinations such as participation certificates or debt securities of productive investment trusts. The CIA urged that funds from the Asset Regularization Regime be allocated to investments in used properties, thereby exempting them from the established aliquot.

Real estate agents believe that money laundering could help reactivate the struggling sector. With recent data showing a significant increase in property sales in May and positive growth in mortgage loans, they see money laundering as a potential boost for recovery. However, this may not be enough as contraction and falling prices have been plaguing the sector for years.

Therefore, real estate companies are also focusing on returning mortgage credit to stimulate growth in the sector. They believe that potential incentives like allocating funds from the Asset Regularization Regime to investments in used properties could help revive the real estate market in Argentina.