Rental guarantee in Buenos Aires: what agencies actually accept

The guarantee is the real gate to renting in Buenos Aires, more than price. Decree DNU 70/2023 deregulated almost everything, but what each agency accepts has not changed at the same pace. A map of every real option, by situation.

Finding the apartment is not the problem. Getting them to hand it to you is the problem. In Buenos Aires the guarantee stops more tenants than the price does: the person arriving from abroad, the young renter without property-owning family in the city, the freelancer without a salary slip. This guide separates what the law still demands from what the agency simply chooses to demand, which after DNU 70/2023 is not the same thing.

The problem, and what DNU 70 changed

For years the entry ticket to a lease was the garantía propietaria: someone with a property in their name, often demanded within the city itself, who answers for you to the landlord. If you have family with an apartment in Buenos Aires, it is free and automatic. If you do not, it is a wall.

DNU 70/2023 (December 2023) deregulated the rental market: it repealed the rental law 27.551 and returned to the parties the freedom to agree on term, currency and indexation. Law 27.551 used to oblige the landlord to accept at least two guarantee alternatives proposed by the tenant, caución included; with its repeal that obligation disappeared, and today the guarantee is left entirely to what the parties agree.

The practical effect is counterintuitive. With fewer fixed rules, the question is no longer "what does the law require", because today the law requires little. The question is "what does the agency behind this listing accept". And that changes from one agency to the next, for the same tenant profile.

The table: every option, compared

These are the real ways to guarantee a lease in Buenos Aires today. Cost and acceptance are what matter: a cheap option nobody accepts is useless, and one they accept but that costs you three months of rent is not much better.

One reading of the table: the real axis is not "I have or do not have a guarantor", it is "which combination does this agency accept". The property guarantee is the cheapest and most accepted, but the one fewest people can produce. The caución solves the missing guarantor, but costs money and not everyone takes it. The temporary rental dodges the whole problem, which is why so many arrivals end up overpaying on Airbnb.

What it means for you, by situation

You are arriving from abroad, no guarantor in the city

Your realistic paths are the seguro de caución and upfront months. Before falling for a listing, ask whether the agency takes a caución and from which insurer. If you are searching for months rather than years, the owner-direct furnished temporary rental skips the guarantee almost always: it is the shortcut, but compare the monthly price against a traditional lease before settling on it as the plan.

You have family with property in the city

The property guarantee is your option: the cheapest, the most accepted, the simplest. The only caution is the one in the gray areas below, when the guarantor's property is outside the city limits.

You are a freelancer or your income is informal

This is the hardest profile, because there is no salary slip. The caución and upfront months are your routes; some insurers evaluate monotributo invoicing. They generally ask for sustained monotributo billing, with several months of track record, at around three times the rent; the exact criteria vary by insurer, so check two or three before ruling yourself out.

You are searching for a few months, not years

The temporary rental is built for you and skips the guarantee. The catch is the monthly price. The sweet spot is usually an owner-direct temporary rental, with deposit and advance, without the platform fee or the long-term guarantee.

The gray areas nobody writes down

Here is what generic guides do not tell you, because it cannot be copied from an official bulletin. It comes from reading real listings.

• Acceptance is per agency, not per law. The same profile gets rejected by one agency and taken by the one next door. No public map of who accepts what exists. It is the most valuable piece of information and the least published.
• The "property inside the city" demand. Many agencies require the guarantor's property to be inside Buenos Aires city and reject a guarantor whose property is in the suburbs or the provinces. After the decree that demand has no legal basis: the law imposes no guarantee requirement at all, so it is each agency's commercial policy and, as such, negotiable.
• The caución conflict of interest. Some agencies push the caución of their own partner insurer, earn from it, and present it as "the only option". Always ask whether you can bring a different caución.
• The hidden cost of the caución. It is not just the premium. Some are single-payment for the whole contract, financeable in installments, and some are yearly policies that renew and get paid again every year. Read what you are signing before comparing prices.
• The temporary-rental shortcut. The short furnished contract usually skips the guarantee, which is why new arrivals take refuge in Airbnb. But you pay for the flexibility: an owner-direct temporary rental, with deposit and advance, is usually the same shortcut at a noticeably lower price.
• The post-decree limbo. The law deregulated, but customs move slower. What is "mandatory" today is, in large part, what the agency chooses to demand. More is negotiable than it looks.

What to do now

• Ask before visiting. Before booking a viewing, ask exactly which guarantee the agency accepts: property only? caución? from which insurer? does the guarantor's property have to be inside the city?
• If you have no local guarantor, filter for that. Look for listings that accept a seguro de caución or that are owner-direct or temporary. Do not waste time on the ones that only take the property guarantee.
• Compare the real cost. The caución premium against what staying on Airbnb costs you for not solving the guarantee. The caución often comes out ahead.
• Confirm who charges what. If the agency offers its own caución, ask whether you can bring another. The party selling you the guarantee should not be the only one allowed to sell it.